Encyclopedia of India K-R

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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editorial board Editor in Chief Stanley Wolpert Stanley Wolpert is a distinguished professor emeritus of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. His publications include Tilak and Gokhale: Revolution and Reform in the Making of Modern India (1962); Morley and India, 1906–1910 (1967); Roots of Confrontation in South Asia (1982); Jinnah of Pakistan (1984); Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan (1993); Nehru: A Tryst with Destiny (1996); Gandhi’s Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi (2002); A New History of India (7th edition, 2003); and India (3d edition, 2005) as well as his forthcoming Shameful Flight: The Last Years of the British Empire in India. Board Members Robert Brown Robert Brown is a professor in the Department of Art History at the University of California, Los Angeles and

the curator of Southeast Asian Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Deena Khathkate Deena Khathkate is the former assistant director of the Monetary and Financial Systems Department at the International Monetary Fund, Washington, D.C. He is also the former managing editor of World Development, a monthly journal of development studies published by Elsevier. He has authored several articles on economics in academic journals, including Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics, and Oxford Economic Papers. Raju G. C. Thomas Raju G. C. Thomas is the Allis Chalmers Distinguished Professor of International Affairs, Marquette University. Among his dozen books, edited and co-edited, are Indian Security Policy (1986); Perspectives on Kashmir (1994); Democracy, Security and Development in India (1996); and India’s Nuclear Security (2001).

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

India

VOLUME 3 K–R

Stanley Wolper t Editor in Chief

Encyclopedia of India Stanley Wolpert, Editor in Chief

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Encyclopedia of India / Stanley A. Wolpert, editor in chief. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-684-31349-9 (set hardcover : alk. paper)—ISBN 0-684-31350-2 (v. 1)—ISBN 0-684-31351-0 (v. 2)—ISBN 0-684-31352-9 (v. 3)—ISBN 0-684-31353-7 (v. 4) 1. India—Encyclopedias. I. Wolpert, Stanley A., 1927– DS405.E556 2005 954'.003—dc22 2005019616

This title is also available as an e-book. ISBN 0-684-31512-2 Contact your Thomson Gale representative for ordering information. Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

table of contents Volume 1 List of Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . List of Articles . . . . . . . . . . . . Thematic Outline of Contents . . . . . . Directory of Contributors . . . . . . . Chronologies . . . . . . . . . . . . A–D Color Insert: Art, Architecture, and Sculpture

. . . . . .

. . ix . . xi . . xv . xxiii . xxxiii . xlvii

Volume 2 List of Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii List of Articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix E–J Color Insert: Contemporary Life

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Volume 3 List of Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii List of Articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix K–R Color Insert: Handicrafts Volume 4 List of Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii List of Articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix S–Z Color Insert: Physical Environment Primary Source Documents . . . . . . . . . 261 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 General Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . 295 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

v

list of maps Volume 1 The Mughal Empire, 1525–1707 . . . . . . . 30 The Empire of Alexander the Great . . . . . . 35 The Bengal Partition and Related Changes, 1905–1912 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 The Revolt of 1857–1859 . . . . . . . . . . 170 The Advance of British Power, 1766–1857 . . . 178 Volume 2 Guptan Empire, c. 300–550 . . . . . . . . . 163 Invasions from the Northwest, 330–1 B.C. . . . 209 Indus Valley Civilization, c. 2800–1600 B.C. . . . 260

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Volume 3 Jammu and Kashmir . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 The Marathas, 1646–1819 . . . . . . . . . . 95 Mauryan Empire, 321–185 B.C. . . . . . . . . 104 Muslim Expansion, 8th–15th Centuries . . . . 199 Territorial Changes, 1947–1955 . . . . . . . 304 Territorial Changes, 1956–2000 . . . . . . . 305 European Commercial Contacts, 16th–18th Centuries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

vii

list of articles A Abdul Kalam, Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen (A.P.J.) Advani, Lal Krishna Aesthetics Afghani, Jamal-ud-din Afghanistan Afghanistan, Military Relations with, 1994–2001 Agni Agra Agricultural Growth and Diversification since 1991 Agricultural Labor and Wages since 1950 Agricultural Prices and Production, 1757–1947 Agricultural Wages, Labor, and Employment since 1757 Ahmedabad AIDS/HIV Ajanta Akbar Akkamah¯ade¯vi ¯ ap Al¯ Albuquerque, Afonso de Alexander the Great Allahabad All-India Muslim League Ambedkar, B. R., and the Buddhist Dalits Amritsar Anand, Mulk Raj ¯ al And¯ Andhra Pradesh Andrews, C. F. Andy, S. Pulney Anglo-Afghan Wars: War One (1838–1842) Anglo-Afghan Wars: War Two (1878–1880) Anglo-Afghan Wars: War Three (May–August 1919) Armed Forces

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Artha Sh¯astra Arunachal Pradesh ¯ Aryabhata ¯ Aryabhat¯ ı ya ¯ Arya Sam¯aj Asht¯adhy¯ay¯ı Ashvamedha Asian Development Bank (ADB), Relations with Asiatic Societies of Bengal and Bombay Assam Astronomy Auckland, Lord Aurangzeb Aurobindo, Sri Avat¯aras of Vishnu, Images of Ayodhya ¯ Ayurveda Azad, Maulana Abul Kalam Azariah, Vedanayakam Samuel

B Babur Bactria Bahadur Shah I Balance of Payments: Exchange Rate Policy Balance of Payments: Foreign Investment and the Exchange Rate B¯alasarasvati, T. Ballistic and Cruise Missile Development Ballistic Missile Defenses Baluchar Sari Baluchistan and the North-West Frontier “Bande Mataram” Bandhani

ix

LIST OF ARTICLES

Banerjea, Surendranath N. Bangalore Bangladesh Bank and Non-Bank Supervision Banking Sector Reform since 1991 Barahmasa Baroda Bene Israel Bengal Bentinck, Lord William Bhabha, Homi Bhagavad G¯ıt¯a Bh¯agavata Pur¯ana ˙ Bhajan Bhakti Bharat Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Bhave, Vinoba Bhopal Bhubaneswar Bhuta ¯ Bhutto, Zulfikar Ali Bihar Bimbisara Biotechnology Revolution Bombay Bonnerji, Womesh C. Bose, Subhas Chandra Brahmacarya Br¯ahmanas · Brahmo Samaj Brazil–India Relations British Crown Raj British East India Company Raj British Impact British India Office, The Brocade Bronzes: Early Images Bronzes: South Indian Buddha, Life of the Buddhism in Ancient India Buddhist Art in Andhra up to the Fourth Century Burma

C Cabinet Mission Plan Calcutta Capital Market Caste and Democracy Caste System Central Banking, Developmental Aspects of Chaitanya Chalcolithic (Bronze) Age Chandigarh

x

Chatterji, Bankim Chandra Chaudhuri, Nirad C. Chelmsford, Lord Chidambaram China, Relations with Chola Dynasty Christian Impact on India, History of Cinema Civil-Military Relations Clive, Robert Commodity Markets Common Property Resources, Past and Present Congress Party Contract Farming Cornwallis, Lord Cripps, Sir Richard Stafford Curzon, Lord George

D Dalhousie, Marquis of Dalits Dance Forms: An Introduction Dance Forms: Bharata Natyam Dance Forms: Kathak Dance Forms: Kathakali Dance Forms: Koodiyattam Dance Forms: Kuchipudi Dance Forms: Manipuri Dance Forms: Mohini Attam Dance Forms: Odissi Das, Chitta Ranjan Debt Markets Deccani Painting Demographic Trends since 1757 Demography and Census-taking Desai, Morarji Development of Commercial Banking 1950–1990 Development Politics Dev¯ı Devi, Siddheshvari Dharma Sh¯astra Dhrupad Diaspora: Economic Impact Diaspora: History of and Global Distribution D¯ıkshitar, Muttusv¯ami D¯ıv¯al¯ı Dravidian Parties Dubois, Jean-Antoine Dufferin, Lord Dundas, Henry Dupleix, Joseph François

E Early Maritime Contacts

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LIST OF ARTICLES

Economic Burden of Defense Economic Development, Importance of Institutions in and Social Aspects of Economic Policy and Change, 1800–1947 Economic Policy Under Planning, Aspects of Economic Reforms and Center-State Relations Economic Reforms of 1991 Economy Since the 1991 Economic Reforms Educational Institutions and Philosophies, Traditional and Modern Elephanta Ellenborough, Earl of Ellora (Elura) Elphinstone, Mountstuart Employment Structure Energy Politics and Policy Environmental Consciousness since 1800 Ethnic Conflict Ethnic Peace Accords European Union, Relations with External Debt Policy, 1952–1990

F Family Law and Cultural Pluralism Famines Federalism and Center-State Relations Feminism and Indian Nationalists Feudalism Filmı¯gı¯t Film Industry Finance Commission Fiscal System and Policy from 1858 to 1947 Fiscal System and Policy since 1952 Fitch, Ralph Folk Art Folk Dance Food Security Foreign Resources Inflow since 1991 Forster, E. M. French East India Company French Impact Fundamental Rights

G Galbraith, John Kenneth Gama, Vasco da Gandharan Art and Architecture Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Mahatma M. K. Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhinagar Ganesha · Gat-Tora

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Gender and Human Rights General (National) Elections Geography Globalization Goa Goddess Images Gokhale, Gopal Krishna Government of India Act of 1919 Government of India Act of 1935 Gujarat Gujral, Inder Kumar Guptan Empire Guptan Period Art Guru Nanak

H Haq, A. K. Fazlul Harappa Hardinge, Lord Harsha Hastings, Warren Health Care Health Care for Tourists Hindu Ancestor Rituals Hindu and Buddhist Thought in Western Philosophy Hinduism (Dharma) Hindu Nationalism Hindu Nationalist Parties Hindu Tantric Deities Hindutva and Politics History and Historiography Human Development Indicators Human Rights Humayun Hyderabad

I Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) India Office and India Office Library India’s Impact on Western Civilization Indo–U.S. Relations, Cultural Changes in Indra Industrial Change since 1956 Industrial Growth and Diversification Industrial Labor and Wages, 1800–1947 Industrial Labor Market, Wages and Employment, since 1950 Industrial Policy since 1956 Indus Valley Civilization Informal Credit Markets Information and Other Technology Development Infrastructure and Transportation, 1857–1947 Infrastructure Development and Government Policy since 1950

xi

LIST OF ARTICLES

Insurance Industry Insurgency and Terrorism Intellectual Property Rights Internal Public Debt, Growth and Composition of International Monetary Fund (IMF), Relations with Iqbal, Muhammad Irwin, Lord Islam Islam’s Impact on India Israel, Relations with Ivory Carving

J Jahangir Jain and Buddhist Manuscript Painting Jainism Jain Sculpture Jamdani Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Ladakh Jamshedpur Japan, Relations with Jewelry Jews of India Jinnah, Mohammad Ali Jodhpur Judicial System, Modern

K Kabir K¯alid¯asa K¯ama Sutra ¯ Kanpur Karachi Karaikk¯al Ammaiy¯ar Kargil Conflict, The Karnataka Kashmir Kashmir Painting Kashmir Shawls Kayasths Kerala, Coalition Politics Kerala, Model of Development Kerkar, Kesarbai Khajuraho Khan, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Ali Akbar Khan, Liaquat Ali Khan, Vilayat Khayal Khusrau, Amir Kipling, Rudyard K¯ırtana Krishna in Indian Art

xii

Krishnamurti, Jiddu Kriti

L Land Tenure from 1800 to 1947 Land Tenure since 1950 Languages and Scripts Lansdowne, Lord Large-scale Industry, 1850–1950 Leaders, Christian Liberalization, Political Economy of Linlithgow, Lord Literature: Modern Literature: Tamil Love Stories

M Macaulay, Thomas Babington M¯adhaviah, A. Madras Madurai Magadha Mah¯abh¯arata Maharashtra Maldives and Bhutan, Relations with Mandal Commission Report Mangeshkar, Lata Manipur Maritime Commerce, 1750–1947 Mauryan Empire Media Medical Science Education Medieval Temple Kingdoms Meghalaya Menon, V.K. Krishna Metalware Military Interventions in South Asia Miniatures: Bikaner Miniatures: Bundi Miniatures: Central India Miniatures: Harem Scenes Miniatures: Kishangarh Miniatures: Kotah Miniatures: Marwar and Thikanas Minto, Lord M¯ırabai Mizoram Modern and Contemporary Art Mohenjo-Daro Monetary Policy from 1952 to 1991 Monetary Policy since 1991 Money and Credit, 1858–1947 Money and Foreign Exchange Markets Montagu, Edwin S.

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LIST OF ARTICLES

Monuments: Eastern India Monuments: Mughal Monuments: Southern India Monuments: Western India Morley, John Mountbatten, Lord Mughal Painting Mughal Painting, Later Music: An Introduction Music: Karn¯atak Music: South India Muslim Law and Judicial Reform Muslims Mutual Funds, Role of Mysore

N Nabob Game Nagas and Nagaland Naidu, Sarojini Nainsukh Naoroji, Dadabhai Narayan, Jaya Prakash Narayan, R. K. Narayanan, K. R. National Security Decision-Making N¯atya Sh¯astra Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Motilal Neolithic Period Nepal Nepal, Relations with New Delhi Nightingale, Florence Nizam of Hyderabad Nobili, Robert de Non-banking Financial Institutions, Growth of Northeast States, The Nuclear Programs and Policies Nuclear Weapons Testing and Development Ny¯aya

P Paithani Pakistan Pakistan and India Palaeolithic Period Pandit, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandita Ramabai P¯anini Pant, Govind Ballabh Papermaking Paramilitary Forces and Internal Security Parsis

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Patanjali Patel, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patna Patola Paul, K. T. Pension Funds and Social Security Peshwai and Pentarchy Pillai, Samuel Vedanayakam Pingala Planning Commission Political System: Cabinet Political System: Constitution Political System: Parliament Political System: President Political System: Prime Minister Population, Gender Ratio of Portuguese in India Poverty and Inequality Prasad, Rajendra Premchand Presidents of India Price Movements and Fluctuations since 1860 Prime Ministers of India Princely States Private Industrial Sector, Role of Public Debt of States, since 1950 Public Expenditures Punjab

Q Qaww¯al¯ı

R Rabban, Joseph Radhakrishnan, Sarvepalli R¯aga R¯agam¯al¯a Rahman, Sheikh Mujibur Rajagopalachari, Chakravarti Rajneesh, Osho Rajput (Western, Central, and Hill) Painting Ramananda R¯am¯anuja R¯am¯ayana · R¯am¯ayana · and Mah¯abh¯arata Paintings Ranade, Mahadev Govind Rang¯oli Ray, Satyajit Reading, Lord Reddi, Muthulakshmi Reserve Bank of India, Evolution of Ripon, Lord Rishi Rock Art

xiii

LIST OF ARTICLES

Roy, Ram Mohan Rural Credit, Evolution of since 1952 Russia, Relations with

S Sabhas and Samitis Sam · ska¯ ra S¯ankhya Sarod Sassoon, David Satyagraha Saving and Investment Trends since 1950 Sayyid Ahmed Khan and the Aligarh Movement Scheduled Tribes Science Scientists of Indian Origin and Their Contributions Sculpture: Buddhist Sculpture: Kushana Sculpture: Mauryan and Shungan Sculpture and Bronze Images from Kashmir Secularism Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Selected Macroeconomic Models Shah Bano Case Shah Jahan Shankar, Ravi Shankara Shiva and Shaivism Shivaji Bhonsle and heirs Shiv Sena Shore, Sir John Shrauta Sutras ¯ Shreni Shulba Sutras ¯ (Ved¯angas) Shy¯ama Sh¯astri Sikh Institutions and Parties Sikhism Simla Sind Singh, Bhagat Singh, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Manmohan Singh, Sadhu Sundar Sirohi School Painting Sitar Size and Capital Intensity of Indian Industry since 1950 Small-Scale and Cottage Industry, 1800–1947 Small-Scale Industry, since 1947 Soma South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) South Asian Economic Cooperation Southeast Asia, Relations with Space Program

xiv

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, Relations with State Finances since 1952 State Formation State-Level Performance since Reforms of 1991 Step-Wells of India Stock Exchange Markets Strategic Thought Subbalakshmi Ammal, R.S. Subbulakshmi, M. S. Subsidies in the Federal Budget Sultanate Painting Sultante-Period Architecture of South Asia

T Tabla Tagore, Rabindranath T¯ala Tanchoi Tansen Tantric Buddhist Images Tapas Tata, Jamsetji N. Taxation Policy since 1991 Economic Reforms Technical Change in Agriculture, 1952–2000 Temple Types (Styles) of India Textiles: Block-Printed Textiles: Early Painted and Printed Textiles: Karuppur Theater Theosophical Society Thumr¯ı Tibetan Buddhists of India Tilak, Bal Gangadhar Trade Liberalization since 1991 Trade Policy, 1800–1947 Tribal Peoples of Eastern India Tribal Politics Tripura Ty¯agar¯aja

U Underground Economy, Dimensions of United States, Relations with Upanishadic Philosophy Urbanism

V Vaisheshika Vajpayee, Atal Bihari Varanasi Varuna · Ved¯anga Jyotisha

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LIST OF ARTICLES

Vedic Aryan India Vina Vishnu and Avat¯aras Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) Vivekananda, Swami

World Bank (WB), Relations with World Trade Organization (WTO), Relations with

W

Y

Wars, Modern Wavell, Lord Weapons Production and Procurement Wellesley, Richard Colley Women and Political Power Women’s Education Women’s Indian Association

Yajña Y¯ajnavalkya Yajur Veda Yoga

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X Xavier, Francis

Z Zoroastrianism

xv

k KABIR (1440–1518), mystic poet. Although tradition states that Kabir was born in 1398 and lived to be 120 years old, he was born in 1440 and lived only until 1518. He is the most quoted poet, apart from Tulsidas (1532–1623), in India. He was a disciple of Ramananda (c. 1400–c. 1470), the Hindu mystic poet. Kabir was an illiterate Muslim weaver of Varanasi (Benares), although some say he was the son of a Brahman widow who was adopted by the childless Muslim julaha (low caste weaver) Niru and his wife. Kabir married Loi, and they had two children. His devotional poems and his devotion led many to follow him (Kabirpanthis), irrespective of their sectarian faith, in his love of God. He contributed to the bhakti tradition, and his conception of devotion to God as suffering may come from the Sufis; his integration of these elements with the nath sampradaya “lord” or “master” tradition, whereby a devotee followed a teacher, produced his distinctive religion. Kabir preached that a simple union (sahaja-yoga), an emotional integration of the soul with God through personal devotion, could be achieved by all people, whether they were Hindus or Muslims (“I am not a Hindu, nor a Muslim am I”), or whether they were of high or low caste (“Now I have no caste, no creed”). He denounced the mullahs and the Muslim practice of bowing toward Mecca, and he criticized Hindu practices as well, condemning ritualistic and ascetic practices of the Brahmans and yogis. Accordingly, he was condemned by both. He satirized hypocrisy, greed, and violence, especially of the overtly religious. He preached ahimsa (nonviolence), and he believed that women were a hindrance to spiritual progress. Kabir’s simple songs of devotion to God, popularized through the song form, sabda or pada, were written in an ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

India

unsophisticated Hindi that could be understood by the uneducated and that continues to inspire the masses of Hindus and Muslims in North India and in Pakistan and Bangladesh. He is said to have written thousands of couplets (doha or sakhi), love songs, and mystic poems. He was claimed by both Hindus and Muslims, and legend states that when he died at Maghar near Gorakhpur, his body turned to flowers; his Muslim followers buried half of them, and his Hindu followers cremated the other half. The Sikhs also adopted Kabir’s works, and their holy book, the Granth Sahib, contains over five hundred of his verses. He is held by Sikhs in much the same kind of reverance as their ten Gurus. His work was collected in the Granth Sahib by Guru Arjan Dev in 1604, and in two other collections, the Kabir Granthavali and Bijak, the sacred book of the Kabir Panth, the Sikh sect devoted to Kabir’s teachings. Roger D. Long See also Bhakti; Sikhism BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hess, Linda, and Shukdeo Singh, eds. The Bijak of Kabir. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2002. Keay, F. E. Kabir and His Followers. New Delhi: Aravali Books International, 1997. Vaudeville, Charlotte. A Weaver Named Kabir: Selected Verses with a Detailed Biographical and Historical Introduction. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1993.

KALI. See Devı¯ . ¯ LIDA ¯ SA, fifth-century Indian dramatist and poet. KA Ka¯lida¯sa, considered to be the premier literary figure of the Sanskrit tradition, set the standard for classical Indian poetry and drama in his widely celebrated works. The 1

¯MA SU ¯TRA KA

poet’s vibrantly evocative landscapes (particularly around the North Indian region of Ujjayinı¯ ), detailed urban settings, and apparent knowledge of court life suggest an association with Chandragupta II, who ruled most of North India from 375 to 415. Inscriptions at Aihole, praising the poet’s abilities, clearly date his works to before 634, but more specific historical information is lacking. Ka¯lida¯sa’s literary legacy is based on seven surviving works. The Meghadu¯ta (Cloud messenger) is a spellbinding lyrical tour de force in which a cloud is asked to voyage through a myth-laden landscape of India and carry a message to the protagonist’s beloved. Two longer poems (maha¯ka¯vyas), derived from earlier epic sources, combine heroic narratives with breathtaking natural descriptions. The Raghuvansha (Lineage of Raghu) depicts the great solar race of warrior kings, into which Ra¯ma, an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu, is born. The Kuma¯rasanbhava (Birth of the war god Kuma¯ra) narrates the divine emergence of the son of Shiva for the restoration of cosmic order. Ka¯lida¯sa’s plays, employing both Sanskrit and Prakrit languages, affirm profound levels of cosmic unity, reconciling life’s inevitable conflicts through a union of the hero and heroine, echoing the ritual sacrifice of Vedic literatures. Ma¯lavika¯gnimitra (Ma¯lavika¯ and Agnimitra), generally classified as a secular romance in which the characters are “invented” as opposed to being taken from epic sources, depicts the love between King Agnimitra and an exiled servant Ma¯lavika¯, who turns out to be a princess. Vikramorvashı¯ ya (Urvashı¯ won by valor) retells the Vedic and epic legend of love between the mortal king Puru¯ravas and the immortal nymph Urvashı¯ and explores the sentiments of love in union and separation. The poet’s best-known work, Abhijña¯nasha¯kuntala (Shakuntala¯ and the ring of recollection), often referred to as Sha¯kuntala, is also based on an epic narrative and is hence characterized as a heroic romance. It tells of King Dushyanta’s fateful meeting with the daughter of a royal sage and a celestial nymph, Shakuntala¯, in her adopted father’s hermitage. Although the king marries her in secret, he is cursed to forget about the union until the ring he had given her is found in the belly of a fish. When the king’s memory is restored, he reunites with Shakuntala¯ as the tension between desire (ka¯ma) and duty (dharma) is reconciled through a blending of erotic and heroic sentiments. This elevated aesthetic mood, or rasa, in which divisions between the audience, actors, and author were said to dissolve, was the expressed goal of the literary work of art, and Ka¯lida¯sa’s ability to inculcate the distilled and universalized emotional essence of rasa is unparalleled in the Sanskrit literary tradition. His rapt imagery, aesthetic sensitivity, and dazzling landscapes, 2

infused with the presence of Shiva and the Goddess, reveal the divine presence in all things. Rick Jarow

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abhijña¯nasha¯kuntala. Devanagari recension with commentary of Ra¯ghavabhatta. 12th ed., edited by N. R. Acharya. Mumabai: Nirnaya Sagar Press, 1958. Ma¯lavika¯gnimitra, edited by K. A. Subramania Iyer. New Delhi: Shitya Akademi, 1978. Meghadu¯ta, edited by S. K. De. Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1957. Raghuvansha, with Mallina¯tha’s commentary, ed. and trans. G. N. Nandargikar. Reprint, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1982.

SECONDARY SOURCES

A¯nandavardhana. The Dhvanya¯loka of A¯nandavardhana. With the “Locana” of Abhinavagupta. Translated by Daniel H. H. Ingalls, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, and M. V. Partwardhan. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990. Baumer, Rachel van M., and James R. Brandon, eds. Sanskrit Drama in Performance. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1981. Dimock, Edward Cameron, et al. The Literatures of India: An Introduction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974. Miller, Barbara Stoler, et al. Theater of Memory: The Plays of Ka¯lida¯sa. New York: Columbia University Press, 1984.

¯ MA SU ¯ TRA Composed by Va¯tsya¯yana Mallana¯ga, KA the Ka¯ma Su¯tra is a treatise on erotic love, deemed one of the three spheres of worldly life in ancient India. The dates of the author are uncertain, but evidence suggests he lived sometime in the third or fourth century of the common era, just before the inception of the great Gupta empire. The Ka¯ma Su¯tra is the earliest surviving text of the quasi-scientific genre of writing on the subject of erotic love known as ka¯ma sha¯stra (the science of erotics). Though earlier works on the subject are no longer available, this genre became abundant in later times. The Ka¯ma Su¯tra has a thirteenth-century commentary, called Jayamangala, written by one Yashodhara. Long viewed as a sort of Hindu parallel to the Joy of Sex, recent research suggests that the Ka¯ma Su¯tra is actually better seen in the context of the courtly and urban culture that emerged during Gupta times. The Ka¯ma Su¯tra is divided into seven books, each comprising two or more chapters. The first book sets out the lifestyle of the “man about town,” or na¯garaka, a figure to whom most of the text is seemingly addressed. Va¯tsya¯yana gives details about his daily routine, social engagements, household, potential female partners, and a vast list of arts (kala¯s) ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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K A N V AYA N A D Y N A S T Y

that he was to master as part of a courtly education. The second book, on sex itself, begins by dividing women and men up into a sexual typology (named famously after animals), based on size, endurance, and temperament. In subsequent chapters the author treats a variety of subjects, including embracing, kissing, nail scratching, biting, positions in intercourse, and oral sex, in a highly technical, often dry style. The third book advises a young man how to obtain a virgin for marriage, noting both more and less respectable methods, depending on his circumstances. It also discusses the manner in which a bride was to be sexually approached and “won over” on the days following the marriage. The fourth book discusses the conduct appropriate for married women, a profoundly complex subject given the fact that polygyny was widespread among the elite classes in early India. Va¯tsya¯yana discusses the delicate protocol of the harem (Sanskrit, antahpura), where the master of the household met his wives and concubines on a daily basis, the dynamics of which were often complex, dangerous, and consequential for the maintenance of stability in the household. The fifth book discusses sex with other men’s wives, a practice Va¯tsya¯yana warns against in all but the most desperate circumstances, when a man simply cannot control his desires. Here the use of intermediaries, as well as secret liaisons with women of the antahpura, are discussed. The sixth book is addressed to courtesans, instructing them on how to seduce, cajole, extract money from, and even dispose of, potential patrons. The last book sets out esoteric formulas (magical and medicinal) for those who, for various reasons, were unable to follow the policy laid out in previous chapters. These formulas are mostly aimed at controlling noncompliant lovers or enhancing one’s sexual prowess. Daud Ali See also Devı¯ ; Hinduism (Dharma)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bhattacharya, Narendra Nath. History of Indian Erotic Literature. Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1975. Chakladar, H. C. Social Life in Ancient India: A Study of Vatsyayana’s Kamasutra. 1929. Reprint, Kolkata: Susil Gupta, 1954. Kamasutra. Translated by Wendy Doniger and Sudhir Kakar. Oxford: Clarendon, 2002. Roy, Kumkum. “Unravelling the Kamasutra.” In A Question of Silence: The Sexual Economies of Modern India, edited by Mary E. John and Janaki Nair. Delhi: Kali for Women, 1998.

KANPUR An industrial city in Uttar Pradesh, Kanpur (population 2.5 million in 2001) is located on the banks of the Ganges about 250 miles (400 kilometers) to the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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southeast of Delhi. Its old name, Kanhpur, is derived from one of the names of Krishna (Kanha). It was located in the heartland of the Mughal empire. In the eighteenth century, it was included in the territory under the control of the nawa¯bs of Oudh. In 1803 the nawa¯b of Oudh had to cede the southern part of his realm to the British, and Kanpur was at the center of this ceded territory. Unlike in Bengal, where the British introduced a permanent settlement of the land revenue, they subjected this newly acquired area to a stiffer revenue settlement. Many peasants lost their land as the British collectors auctioned it off for the slightest default in revenue payments. The peasants were forced to turn to cash crops, and the soil of this formerly fertile area was degraded within a few decades. For these reasons, many of the peasants of this area joined the “Mutiny” of 1857. Kanpur became a major center of resistance against the British in 1857 and was the scene of a massacre of British men, women, and children. Nana Saheb, the last Maratha peshwa of Pune, was banished to the old Bitur palace outside Kanpur, and seemed to be as innocuous a pensioner as the powerless Great Mughal in Delhi, but he joined the mutinous soldiers and took over the city, directing the massacre. In 1872 Kanpur had only 123,000 inhabitants, but in subsequent decades it emerged as a major center of India’s new cotton textile industry, started by British entrepreneurs, unlike the earlier mills in Bombay (Mumbai) and Ahmedabad, which were mostly owned by Indians. When the large Indian textile mills declined, the government of India tried to stimulate industrial growth in Kanpur by establishing one of the five great Indian Institutes of Technology (ITTs) in that city. The land was granted by the government of Uttar Pradesh, and the buildings were completed in 1963. An Indo-American program was launched in 1962, under which nine leading institutions in the United States helped provide equipment and training for ITT staff and students. At present, the Kanpur ITT has about 1,400 undergraduate and 850 postgraduate students and a faculty of 300, and Kanpur has become a center of India’s technological revolution. Dietmar Rothermund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Mukherjee, Rudrangshu. Spectre of Violence: The 1857 Kanpur Massacres. New Delhi: Penguin, 1998. Yalland, Zoe. Traders and Nabobs: The British in Cawnpore, 1765–1857. Wilton, U.K.: Russell, 1987. ——-. Boxwallahs: The British in Cawnpore, 1857–1901. Norwich, U.K.: Russell, 1994.

KANVAYANA

DYNASTY.

See

History

and

Historiography. 3

KARACHI

KARACHI The capital of Sind province in southern Pakistan, Karachi is the country’s largest city and principal seaport, and it serves as a major center for commerce and industry. The city occupies an area of 228 square miles (591 sq. km), with a metropolitan region that covers around 560 square miles (1,450 sq. km). The population, according to a 1998 census, is approximately 9.8 million. Karachi’s recorded history extends over a period of approximately three hundred years. The area that became Karachi was until 1725 a mostly barren piece of land surrounded on three sides by the Arabian Sea. The city takes its name from Kalachi-jo-Kun, referring to the area’s deep saline creeks and the presence of a fishing hamlet. The British East India Company occupied Karachi in 1839, conquering the larger region of Sind in 1843. The city was made an administrative center and thereafter expanded rapidly. When Sind was incorporated into the Bombay presidency, Karachi became its district headquarters. Economically, as a major port for the British Raj, Karachi was linked to the cotton- and wheatproducing areas elsewhere in the subcontinent. In 1935 Sind was made a separate province, with Karachi as its capital. Between August 1947 and April 1951 the open borders between India and Pakistan saw 8 million Muslims move to the newly independent state and 6 million nonMuslims flee in the other direction. Karachi, at the time Pakistan’s capital, received large numbers of Muslim refugees, including educated arrivals who hoped to find government employment. The 1951 census identified close to 55 percent of the city’s population, then more than 1 million, as Muhajirs—Urdu-speaking immigrants from India. Karachi experienced further rapid growth over the next two decades with the arrival of migrants from the rural Sind, and from Pakistan’s North-West Frontier (NWFP) and Punjab provinces. Ethnic Pathans from NWFP, mostly a working-class community, expanded squatter settlements and shantytowns constructed earlier by Muhajirs. Competition for scarce available resources among antagonistic ethnic groups resulted over the following decades in near political and social breakdown, and contributed to an often corrupt and ineffective city administration. The Muhajirs’ major political organization, the Muhajir (later Muttehida) Qaumi Mahaz (MQM, or People’s Movement), emerged, seeking enhanced political recognition in Sindh for the Urdu-speaking community, and it has since called for Karachi to become a separate province. MQM has contested elections and sought national influence in alliance with other parties. It has also resorted to violence 4

and has been subjected to heavy-handed repression from federal authorities. Ethnic troubles are not the only factor in Karachi’s turbulent politics. Small arms were smuggled into the city during the anti-Communist jihad in Afghanistan during the 1980s, making more lethal the urban culture of violence. Afghan refugees settling in the city have been linked to the city’s flourishing drug trade. Millions of Pakistanis have become addicts due to easy access to heroin. Karachi nevertheless retains a special character and importance for Pakistan. It serves as the country’s center for transportation, finance, commerce, and manufacturing. Most international trade reaching Pakistan and Afghanistan passes through the city’s modern port, and it boasts a major new airport. Karachi has a large automobile assembly plant, an oil refinery, a steel mill, shipbuilding, and textile factories, and it is the center of the country’s media and entertainment industries. Although the seat of the national government shifted to Islamabad in 1960, Karachi remains the most vibrant city in Pakistan and the nucleus of the internationally oriented sector of Pakistan’s economy. Marvin G. Weinbaum

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baillie, Alexander F. Kurrachee. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1997. Hasan, Arif. “The Growth of a Metropolis.” In Karachi— Megacity of Our Times, edited by H. Khuhro and A. Moorej. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1997. ———. Understanding Karachi: Planning and Reform for the Future. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1999.

¯ L AMMAIYA ¯ R (c. KARAIKKA

A.D. 550), mystic, early poet-saint of the bhakti movement. Karaikka¯l Ammaiya¯r, or the Lady of Karaikka¯l, was a mystic devoted to Shiva, the dancing lord of Tiruva¯lanka¯du, Tamil Nadu. As one of the earliest of the sixty-three nayana¯rs (Shiva saints) and a contemporary of Pu¯dam, the first a¯lva¯r (Vishnu saint), Karaikka¯l Ammaiya¯r helped to usher in the Tamil bhakti (devotional) movement, which spread from this region across India. Bhakti saints represented the folk voices of many castes, and their hymns in the local languages proclaimed the supremacy of a personal love for God above priestly ritual. Although bhakti mystics did not overturn caste hierarchies, their cultural imprint on India has been profound.

Karaikka¯l Ammaiya¯r’s songs are among the earliest bhakti compositions for Shiva in the prabandha mode, which became popular among the medieval saints. The ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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hymns and hagiographies of the nayana¯rs are recorded in the twelve Tirumurai, the scripture for the Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta school; Karaikka¯l Ammaiya¯r’s three long hymns are recorded in the eleventh Tirumurai. Her work is inspired by the literary styles of the classical Tamil Sangam era (1st–5th centuries) and the evocative tone of fifth-century early bhakti texts like Tirumuruka¯rrupatai, a guide to god Murukan’s sacred sites, and Paripa¯tal, in praise of Murukan and Vishnu-Tiruma¯l. Karaikka¯l Ammaiya¯r’s three hymns are Mu¯tta-tirup-patikañkal, twenty-two verses in classical melodies; Tiru-irattaimanima¯lai, twenty verses of two alternating styles; and Arputat-tiru-vanta¯ti, one hundred one verses in the anta¯ti genre, a sonorous web of praises in which the last word of each verse is echoed in the next. Unlike the ninth-century bhakti saint A¯nda¯l, who resisted marriage on Earth for love of Vishnu, Karaikka¯l Ammaiya¯r was married to a merchant when she was a young woman called Punitavati. The myth of her transformation from chaste wife to chaste yogi is recorded by the sage Se¯kkila¯r in Periya Pura¯nam, a thirteenth-century hagiography of the na¯yana¯rs. One day, Punitavati’s husband handed her two mangoes, which he had received as the gift from a sage. She fed a poor Shiva devotee with one fruit; and she magically produced more mangoes for her husband at mealtime by praying to Shiva. Frightened by this display of divine powers, her husband fled and remarried. On practicing severe yogic austerities, Punitavati came to be addressed as Karaikka¯l Ammaiya¯r. In a rare example of reversed spousal roles, her husband returned to prostrate humbly at her feet. The myth highlights the auspicious power of both the chaste, faithful wife (pativrata) and the chaste yogi who renounces sensuality. This follows the Tamil tradition of the pativrata Kannaki, who is transformed from a meek wife to a powerful, semidivine heroine in the Sangam epic, Shilappatika¯ram. Karaikka¯l Ammaiya¯r sang of her ironic, joyful bondage to Shiva, whose grace would free her from earthly bondage in the cycle of birth and death (samsa¯ra). In another poem, she begs that Shiva at least grant her the boon of always remembering him. Se¯kkila¯r states that Shiva respectfully addressed her as “Ammaiya¯r,” or Mother, when she achieved enlightenment and moksha, or freedom from sam . sa¯ra. A thirteenth-century Chola bronze provides a visual representation of the ghoulish yet gleeful yogi who described herself as a pey (ghost), “a female wraith of shriveled breasts, swollen veins, protruding eye-balls, white teeth, sunken stomach, fiery red hair, two protruding fangs,” according to Se¯kkila¯r (Vanmikanathan, p. 537). Frescoes depict her life on the walls of her modern shrine at Karaikka¯l; and young women today offer mangoes to the icon of this venerable woman saint. Sita Anantha Raman ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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See also Bhakti

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cilappadika¯ram. Ilañko¯vatika¯l Iyarrurruliya Cilappatika¯ram (Ilango Adiga¯l’s Cilapaddika¯ram, editor, P. V. So¯masundaram). Chennai: Saiva Siddha¯nta Society, 1969. Dehejia, Vidya, trans. A¯nta¯l and Her Path of Love: Poems of a Woman Saint from South India. SUNY Series in Hindu Studies. Albany: State University of New York, 1990. Harle, J. C. Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent. Pelican History of Art Series. 2nd ed. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1994. Hart, George L., III. The Poems of the Ancient Tamil: Their Milieu and Their Sanskrit Counterparts. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975. Sastri, K. A. Nilkanta. A History of South India: From Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1975. Shulman, David Dean. Tamil Temple Myths: Sacrifice and Divine Marriage in the South Indian Saiva Tradition. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Subramanian, K., ed. Patino¯nra¯n Tirumurai (Eleventh Tirumurai). Saiva Siddhanta Math series. Srivaikuntam: Kumara Guruparan Sangam, 1972. Vanmikanathan, G. Periya Pura¯nam: A Tamil Classic on the Great Saiva Saints of South India by Sekkizhaar. Mylapore: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1985. Varadarajan, M. A History of Tamil Literature. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1988. Yocum, Glenn. Hymns to the Dancing Siva: A Study of Ma¯nikkava¯cakar’s Tiruva¯cakam. New Delhi: Heritage Publishers, 1982. Younger, Paul. The Home of Dancing Sivan: The Traditions of the Hindu Temple in Citamparam. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

KARGIL CONFLICT, THE In late April 1999, Indian soldiers patrolling along the Kashmir Line of Control (LOC) near the Indian town of Kargil were ambushed by unseen assailants who had occupied secret positions high atop frozen mountain peaks along the Great Himalayan Range. After several frantic weeks of confusion, Indian military and intelligence officers realized the intruders were not Kashmiri militants, as they initially had assumed, but in fact were well-trained troops from Pakistan’s Northern Light Infantry (NLI), and that the infiltration was much larger and better organized than earlier believed. In response, the Indian government mounted a major military and diplomatic campaign to oust Pakistan’s occupying forces. After two months of intense high-altitude fighting, during which each side suffered more than 1,000 casualties, Pakistan ordered its soldiers home, India regained its mountain posts along the LOC, and the conflict ended. Although in the end no territory changed hands—as it had in the previous wars India and Pakistan fought in 5

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1947–1948, 1965, and 1971—the Kargil conflict was a momentous event. Occurring just a year after India and Pakistan openly detonated nuclear explosives, this military engagement dispelled the conventional wisdom that nuclear-armed countries cannot fight one another. Like the only other direct military clash between nuclear weapons powers—the Sino-Soviet skirmishes over Zhenbao Island in the Ussuri River in the spring of 1969—the Kargil conflict did not come close to causing a nuclear war. However, it is now known that Indian troops were within days of opening another front across the LOC, an act that might have triggered a large-scale conventional war, which in turn might have led to the employment of nuclear weapons. Several analysts from India and the United States consider Kargil to be the fourth Indo-Pakistani war. It probably is more accurate to view Kargil as a “conflict,” or a “near war,” as one Indian general put it. The scale and intensity of the fighting well exceeded even the high levels of peacetime violence typically experienced along the Kashmir Line of Control, where fierce artillery duels and ten-person-a-day body counts have been far too common. However, the military engagement in the spring and summer of 1999 was confined to a small section of mountainous terrain in Indian-held Kashmir; only a fraction of each side’s soldiers and military arsenals were used; and both countries tried to reduce the risk of escalation by keeping their political and military objectives limited. Moreover, because about seven hundred Indian and Pakistani soldiers perished in the mountains near Kargil, this conflict did not meet the classical definition of war as an armed conflict with at least one thousand battlefield deaths.

Background The Kargil intrusion is deeply rooted in India’s longstanding dispute with Pakistan over the political status of Jammu and Kashmir. In late 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh, the ruler of semiautonomous Kashmir, delayed acceding to either of South Asia’s newly independent countries, India or Pakistan, ignoring the rules of partition issued by the British viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten. Hari Singh’s dreams of an independent Jammu and Kashmir were interrupted by a tribal rebellion near Poonch. With the assistance of Pakistan army officers, tribal lashkars (forces) from Pakistan’s North-West Frontier province raided Kashmir, as they had done many times in the past, seeking glory and loot. India’s new prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, sent in the Indian army to repulse these raiders, and India and Pakistan found themselves engaged in their first war within months of independence. Kargil was a key battleground in the 1947–1948 war. In May 1948 a small force of Pakistan’s Gilgit Scouts 6

captured the high-altitude Zojila pass, the only strategic passage that links Srinagar with the Northern Areas and Leh on the Indian side of the LOC, and with it the surrounding towns of Kargil, Dras, and Skardu. Major General D. K. Palit, who was serving in a nearby Indian unit at Poonch, noted India’s apprehension over this development: “As a result of the fall of Skardu and Kargil, the Valley of Kashmir was threatened from the north as well as the east; what is more, the only line of communication between Srinagar and Leh, over the Zojila and through Kargil, was disrupted. Failing rapid reinforcements, it would be only a matter of months before the enemy could walk into Leh” (Palit, p. 241). Kargil’s strategic importance was as clear to the Indian government then as it is now. India reacted immediately to this threat by sending a brigade-size force from Srinagar and Leh to retake Kargil and reopen the road. This episode is significant because the Gilgit Scouts eventually were incorporated into the NLI as part of Pakistan’s Force Command Northern Areas (FCNA). These units remembered, through stories from previous generations and evidence retained in their archives, that they had captured the Kargil heights with a small, determined force. Second, it also is notable that India was unwilling to accept such an outcome and would retaliate forcefully to vacate any intrusion in this strategically important area—a crucial lesson. In the end, the fighting during what could be called the first Kargil conflict proved inconclusive. Pakistani and Indian forces reached a military stalemate, and a negotiated cease-fire line was codified in the Karachi Agreement of 1949. Pakistanis generally believe that Hindu leaders have long oppressed the Muslim population of Jammu and Kashmir, and the questionable accession into the Indian union has denied the populace of their right to self-determination. They stress the United Nations (UN) Security Council’s demand for a “free and impartial plebiscite,” although other UN demands for “a cessation of the fighting” and the creation of “proper conditions” for such a vote to take place are generally overlooked. Pakistanis also consider the Indian government’s refusal to grant Kashmir independence as proof that Indians ultimately do not accept the “two-nation theory,” which is the raison d’être for Pakistan’s creation and its continued existence. Pakistan always has faced a larger, more populous, wealthier, and militarily more powerful neighbor in India. Pakistani defense planners have had great difficulty finding ways to compensate for these profound structural asymmetries. The sense of political and strategic necessity, when combined with a strong belief of moral righteousness, has justified the use of almost any means for the sake of liberating Kashmir and resisting Indian primacy ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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on the subcontinent. As a result, the Pakistani army repeatedly has attempted daring and unconventional methods to wrest Kashmir from India by force and to liberate the Kashmiri Muslims from Indian rule—and it repeatedly has been stymied in these efforts. The 1999 Kargil operation was the latest failed attempt to seize the upper hand in South Asia’s enduring rivalry.

Pakistan’s Bold Plan The Kargil operation was an audacious attempt to seize an opportunity of historic proportions. Pakistan’s Kargil gambit can be seen as a logical—though perhaps extreme—continuation of its long-standing competitive policy with India. The Pakistani people view the Kashmiri cause as moral and just, and in 1999 Pakistani security planners continued a tradition of asymmetric strategies to circumvent India’s conventional military advantages. A successful Kargil intrusion would have shown that Pakistani soldiers were willing to endure incredible hardships to support the Kashmiri struggle. It could have given a timely boost to a weakening insurgency inside Kashmir. And finally, if the plan succeeded, it could have forced India back to the negotiating table and given Islamabad greater leverage to resolve the Kashmir dispute on favorable terms once and for all. In the winter of 1998–1999, Indian troops predictably vacated their high-altitude posts along the LOC as they retreated to winter positions—a normal measure taken by both Indian and Pakistani forces to reduce the strain on forces during the harsh winter months. Pakistani planners aimed to seize this unprotected territory to the maximum feasible limit, with an eye on interdicting National Highway 1A (NH-1A), the strategically important Indian road that runs between Srinagar and Leh. But the plan’s boldness also made it dangerous and ultimately untenable. Its success would require hundreds of troops to infiltrate across the LOC without detection. After their inevitable discovery, these troops would have to fend off Indian counterattacks until the onset of snow the next winter, which would close the passes, halt military operations, and allow Pakistani infiltrators to harden their positions. This military fait accompli would have enabled Pakistan to redraw the LOC. At remote posts in the higher altitude terrain along the LOC separating the portions of Kashmir that India and Pakistan possess, each side’s forces would retreat to lower heights during the winter owing to the intense logistical and weather hazards associated with deploying troops during such conditions. After the creation of the ceasefire line (and subsequently the LOC), India and Pakistan tacitly allowed such winter retreats to occur without taking advantage of them, a norm consistent with the letter and spirit of the 1949 Karachi Agreement. Following ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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India’s military seizure of Siachen Glacier in northernmost Kashmir in 1984, however, both sides dramatically reduced the number of forward posts they would vacate during the harsh winter months. The loss of hundreds of square miles of territory around the Siachen Glacier was a deep scar for the Pakistan army, in particular the FCNA, which is tasked with its defense. So in the winter of 1998–1999, when Indian troops vacated their highaltitude posts in the area around Kargil, on the belief that invaders could not carry out any meaningful infiltration in such difficult terrain during inclimate weather, Pakistan was quick to mount, and then expand, its secret Kargil campaign. The Kargil operation’s planners seemed convinced that India would not expand the conflict elsewhere along the LOC or the international border, and that the world community would view the Kargil operation as part of the normal pattern of violence along the LOC, similar to India’s daring occupation of the Siachen Glacier fifteen years before. While some of the Pakistani army’s calculations were borne out by events, the faulty assumptions they made, when combined with tactical missteps on the ground, doomed the Kargil operation to failure. Perhaps most crucially, Kargil’s planners failed to recognize the significance of the nuclear revolution. The international community could not endorse any attempt to use force to redraw international boundaries, even if they were disputed, and in particular would not permit what looked like the manipulation of nuclear escalation, even if that was not what Kargil’s planners had in mind.

India’s Political-Military Strategy By the end of April 1999, Pakistan’s intruding force had occupied about 130 posts in the Dras, Mushkoh, Kaksar, Batalik, and Chorbat-la sectors of northern Kashmir, covering an approximate area of 62 miles (100 kilometers) across the LOC and running 4–6 miles (7 to 10 kilometers) deep into the territory previously held by India. This far exceeded what is believed to be the Pakistani army’s original plan to seize two dozen or so posts in a much smaller swathe of territory across the LOC. Some of the captured positions directly overlooked NH-1A, and put Pakistani troops in a position to interdict the strategically important road with artillery and long-range small arms fire. The Indian army first learned about the intrusions in late April 1999. Initial Indian attempts to retrieve the heights, which were then thought to be held by Kashmiri militants, were easily rebuffed by Pakistan’s well-trained and well-armed NLI soldiers. In fact, Indian troops experienced weeks of enemy fire without even seeing who was shooting at them, for the infiltrators were well hidden high atop the 13,000–18,000 foot-high (4,000–5,500-meter) 7

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mountain peaks. Indian officials gradually realized that circumstances were far more serious than they initially had assumed. Local commanders frantically began to maneuver their forces to contain the intruders and launched military patrols to determine the extent of the enemy intrusion. Because of poor intelligence, improper acclimatization of troops, a shortage of high-altitude equipment, and coordination difficulties, Indian troops suffered their heaviest casualties during this initial, frenetic phase of the military engagement. The Indian armed forces launched a major counteroffensive, codenamed “Operation Vijay” (Victory), during the third week of May 1999. On 26 May, the Indian air force commenced air strikes in support of ground troops, vertically escalating the conflict. Indian troops simultaneously started mobilizing to war locations in other parts of the country, deploying forces along the India-Pakistan international border and elsewhere along the LOC. The Zojila pass opened in early May 1999, significantly earlier than normal. Pakistani defense planners had not counted on this development. The opening of Zojila facilitated India’s induction of troops, supporting units, and logistics necessary for an effective counteroffensive. The Indian army achieved its first success on 13 June in the Dras subsector when they captured point 4590 at the Tololing Ridge after nearly three weeks of heavy fighting. This tactical victory was a turning point for the Indian counteroffensive, which the Indian army progressively built upon until the first week of July, when it had managed to recapture a significant portion of previously occupied territory. As the Indian military reclaimed more territory, Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif found himself under mounting international pressure to pull back Pakistani regular and irregular forces from the Indian side of the LOC. After a hastily arranged visit to Washington, D.C., over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, Prime Minister Sharif signed the Washington Declaration with U.S. president Bill Clinton and agreed to instruct Pakistani troops to vacate the captured territory. On 11 July, the Directors General Military Operations (DGMOs) of the Indian and Pakistani armies met at the Wagha checkpost, where the Pakistani DGMO consented to commence withdrawal by 11 July and complete it by 16 July, a date that later was extended until 18 July. Pakistanis insist that this cease-fire was not implemented in good faith, as Pakistani troops suffered heavy casualties throughout July. Indians counter that the use of force was authorized only to counter resistance or to attack positions that Pakistan still occupied after the cease-fire had expired. On 26 July 1999, the Indian DGMO declared at a press conference that all Pakistani intrusions had been vacated in and around the Kargil heights, thereby marking an official end to the conflict. 8

Was There a Risk of Nuclear War? The Kargil conflict caused an especially high degree of alarm worldwide because it was the first major military engagement between two countries armed with nuclear weapons since the Sino-Soviet border clashes of 1969. Although no Indian or Pakistani nuclear weapons were actually deployed in 1999, and although previous IndoPakistani crises during the 1980s and early 1990s had occurred under the shadow of covert nuclear capabilities, the nuclear context of Kargil had three unprecedented effects on the strategic behavior of India, Pakistan, and outside parties, especially the United States. First, the achievement of mutual nuclear deterrence may have emboldened Pakistani military leaders to take assertive military action in Kashmir. Second, Indian officials believed that the nuclear revolution had fundamentally transformed the Indo-Pakistani competition, and thus reacted in a slow and confused manner to the infiltration. As Pakistan’s military role became apparent, India responded with unexpected vigor, both militarily and rhetorically. Third, India’s forceful response fed into the worst fears of the Clinton administration about nuclear escalation and spurred President Clinton to become personally involved in effecting Pakistan’s withdrawal and preventing escalation to full-scale war. Pakistan ultimately misread the impact of nuclear weapons on Indian and American behavior, mistakenly believing that India would not expend sizable resources to restore the status quo ante and that any international intervention would freeze the ground situation to Pakistan’s advantage. These effects are striking because, prior to the Kargil infiltration, Indian and Pakistani elites viewed their nuclear capabilities as largely political, rather than military, tools, and assumed that they would stabilize their long-standing competition. Leaders of each country made assumptions about the impact that nuclear arsenals would have on the other side’s behavior, but these assumptions were mutually contradictory, and ultimately failed to account for the attitudes and responses of the other side. As a result, nuclear weapons did not deter war. They did not cause the conflict, but they may have emboldened Pakistan to launch the Kargil operation, and they significantly heightened the alarm with which India, the United States, and other countries viewed Pakistan’s intrusion. The value of nuclear weapons as “cover” for the pursuit of Pakistani ambitions at lower levels of intensity was both recognized and publicly addressed prior to the conflict. Shortly before the intrusion was discovered, Pakistan chief of army staff general Pervez Musharraf announced that while nuclear weapons had dramatically changed the nature of war, “this, however, does not mean that conventional war has become obsolete. In fact ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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conventional war will still remain the mode of conflict in any future conflagration with our traditional enemy” (Kargil Review Committee, p. 242). India’s military leadership recognized this possibility, as did some intelligence analyses of Pakistani intentions. According to the Indian Kargil Review Committee report, as early as 1991 the Joint Intelligence Committee anticipated that Pakistan would use its nuclear capability to limit Indian conventional retaliation in the event of low-intensity conflict. On 10 February 1999, Indian chief of army staff general V. P. Malik declared, “Having crossed the nuclear threshold does not mean that a conventional war is out” (Cherian, “Political and Diplomatic Background”). While political elites were ruling out conventional war, within two months of each other, both army chiefs ruled conventional war back in.

Indian and Pakistani Nuclear Threats Veiled and direct nuclear threats from a range of official and unofficial sources created a chilling backdrop to the fast-paced diplomatic interaction during the crisis, and not surprisingly added to the general confusion, raising the fears of military escalation. While leaders on both sides engaged in nuclear rhetoric, neither side directly threatened to use nuclear weapons and, judging by subsequent statements and actions, neither side feared the use of nuclear weapons by the other. However, observers in the United States and elsewhere were alarmed by the possibility that the limited conflict might escalate into a conventional war and then possibly to a nuclear exchange. In late May, Pakistani foreign secretary Shamshad Ahmed made the most prominent nuclear statement of the conflict when he warned India that Pakistan could use “any weapon” to defend its territorial integrity (“Pakistan Warns It May Use Any Weapon”). This articulation is significant because Pakistani statements on nuclear doctrine usually focus on the use of nuclear weapons as a “last resort” when the survival of the state is at stake. It also took place quite early in the crisis— shortly after India had escalated the military situation by authorizing use of the Indian air force to conduct precision strikes against Pakistani positions on the Indian side of the LOC. This suggests that Pakistan was manipulating the nuclear threat, publicly setting a deliberately lowered nuclear threshold in an effort to spur international intervention and, as a consequence, to limit India’s conventional response. Pakistani planners probably assumed that foreign intervention would freeze hostilities at an early stage of the crisis, leaving Pakistan in possession of at least some of its captured territory across the LOC and thereby enabling it to bargain over Kashmir from an advantageous position. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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The Indian government-appointed Kargil Review Committee writes that, unlike Pakistan, India issued no nuclear threats. This statement is not entirely correct. Indian officials made nuclear threats in response to Pakistani statements. Indian leaders also issued several statements in June apparently intended for domestic audiences. Indian naval chief admiral Sushil Kumar stated that the Indian navy could both survive a nuclear attack and launch one in retaliation. Since the Indian navy had not taken custody of any nuclear weapons, this statement probably was intended to draw attention to the movement of elements of India’s Eastern and Western fleets to strategic positions in the North Arabian Sea and also to position the Indian navy more favorably for future budget debates. A 20 June 1999 editorial in the newspaper of the extremist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), affiliated with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which led the coalition that ruled India at the time, urged the government to launch a nuclear strike on Pakistan. Given the close ideological and political connections between the RSS and the more militant members of the governing BJP coalition, Pakistani leaders could have interpreted this as an official statement. While it certainly did not reflect Prime Minister Vajpayee’s views, these provocative statements by figures outside the actual decision-making loop complicated crisis management. Pakistan also had its share of unsanctioned nuclear saber rattling, especially at the height of the crisis. As Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif prepared to travel to China and the United States to obtain support for Pakistan’s position, his religious affairs minister, Raja Zafarul Haq, publicly warned that Pakistan could resort to the nuclear option to preserve Pakistani territory, sovereignty, or security. Minister Haq was not involved in Pakistan’s nuclear command and control apparatus. This statement was uttered for domestic, or perhaps even personal, political reasons. Nonetheless, the international community viewed the remark with some alarm, and India responded emphatically to it. Prime Minister Vajpayee cautioned that India was prepared for all eventualities. According to the Hindu, “The Union Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, said here today that Pakistan’s threat of a fullfledged nuclear war should not be taken frivolously and that the country was prepared for any eventuality” (“India Ready for Any Eventuality”). National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra added that India would not use nuclear weapons first, but that India was prepared in case “some lunatic tries to do something against us.” (“India Prepared for Pakistan Nuclear Attack”). In this case, an apparently unofficial remark prompted a series of retaliatory statements by Indian officials at the highest level. 9

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This rhetorical exchange during the Kargil crisis revealed a surprising lack of sophistication by India and Pakistan in nuclear diplomacy. Public statements in South Asia frequently are high on rhetoric and short on substance. In contrast to the U.S. and Soviet experiences, India and Pakistan had no history, organizational apparatus, or guidelines in sending nuclear signals. What occurred during the Kargil crisis was ad hoc, uncoordinated, and somewhat confused nuclear rhetoric. As a result, both sides took steps to tighten control over nuclear rhetoric in future crises.

Mysterious Nuclear Maneuvers In addition to the ad hoc nuclear posturing, it has been reported that both sides increased nuclear readiness and may have made nuclear weapons available for actual employment. According to a report by a respected Indian journalist, nuclear warheads were readied, and delivery systems, including Mirage 2000 aircraft, short-range Prithvi missiles, and medium-ranged Agni missiles, were prepared for possible use. Nuclear weapons, according to this report, were placed at “Readiness State 3”—ready to be mated with delivery systems at short notice (Chengappa, 2000, p. 437). However, this claim has been discounted in Washington, Islamabad, and New Delhi. Moreover, no U.S. officials at the time mentioned it in any of their interviews or statements. The most interesting postconflict testimony is that of Bruce Riedel, then-Special Assistant for Near East and South Asian Affairs at the U.S. National Security Council. According to a monograph he wrote in 2002, on 3 July 1999, U.S. intelligence detected “disturbing evidence that the Pakistanis were preparing their nuclear arsenals for possible deployment” (p. 5). According to Riedel, in a personal meeting with Prime Minister Sharif, President Clinton asked, “Did Sharif know his military was preparing their nuclear-tipped missiles?” Reportedly, Sharif responded only by saying “India was probably doing the same” (p. 7). While most observers discount this report, it apparently was confirmed by Indian chief of army staff general Sundarajan Padmanabhan, when he stated in early 2001 that Pakistan “activated one of its nuclear missile bases and had threatened India with a nuclear attack” (Chengappa, 2001). Pakistani authorities have been steadfast in their denials of moving missiles or preparing for a nuclear attack. Although well-informed sources made the claims about Indian and Pakistani nuclear deployments, other evidence has not corroborated them. Moreover, they fly in the face of other, more official claims that no nuclear deployment took place. What some observers say could have occurred was that Pakistan dispersed its nuclear10

capable missiles out of storage sites for defensive purposes—a development that could have been misinterpreted by intelligence agencies as an operational deployment. Similarly, others have not verified accounts that India heightened the readiness of its nuclear forces. Because official spokespeople in Washington, Islamabad, and New Delhi have refused to say more, these claims about nuclear maneuvers must remain a mysterious backdrop to the Kargil conflict. However, it follows that any serious military crisis occurring in the future between India and Pakistan (or, for that matter, any other pair of nuclear states) probably will be accompanied by a great deal of confusion, controversy, and alarm over possible operational deployments. And this certainly will be the context in which the United States and other concerned parties will regard future IndoPakistani military crises. Peter Lavoy See also Jammu and Kashmir; Kashmir; Nuclear Programs and Policies; Pakistan and India; Strategic Thought BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bammi, Y. M. Kargil 1999: The Impregnable Conquered. Noida, India: Gorkha Publishers, 2002. Chengappa, Raj. Weapons of Peace. New Delhi: HarperCollins India, 2000. ———. “The Nuclear Shadow.” India Today, 24 January 2001. Available at ⬍http://www.indiatoday.com/webexclusive/ columns/chengappa/20010124.html⬎ Cherian, John. “The Political and Diplomatic Background.” Frontline 5 ( June 1999). Available at ⬍http://www.flonnet. com/fl1612/16120080.htm⬎ “India Prepared for Pakistan Nuclear Attack.” Financial Times Information, 4 July 1999. “India Ready for any Eventuality.” Hindu, 1 July 1999. Kargil Review Committee. From Surprise to Reckoning: The Kargil Review Committee Report. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2000. Mazari, Shireen M. The Kargil Conflict 1999: Separating Fact from Fiction. Islamabad: Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad, 2003. Mehta, Ashok, and P. R. Chari, eds. Kargil: The Tables Turned. New Delhi: Manohar, 2001. “Pakistan Warns It May Use Any Weapon in Defence.” Financial Times Information, 31 May 1999. Palit, Maj. Gen. D. K. Jammu and Kashmir Arms: History of the J&K Rifles. Dehra Dun: Palit & Dutt, 1972. Qadir, Shaukat. “An Analysis of the Kargil Conflict 1999.” Journal of the Royal United Services Institution 147, no. 2 (April 2002): 24–30. Riedel, Bruce. American Diplomacy and the 1999 Kargil Summit at Blair House. Policy Paper Series 2002. Philadelphia: Center for the Advanced Study of India, 2002. Available at ⬍http://www.sas.upenn.edu/casi/reports/RiedelPaper 051302.htm⬎ ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Singh, Jasjit, ed. Kargil 1999: Pakistan’s Fourth War for Kashmir. New Delhi: Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, 1999. Swami, Praveen. The Kargil War. New Delhi: LeftWord, 2000. Talbott, Strobe. Engaging India: Diplomacy, Democracy, and the Bomb. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2004. Tellis, Ashley J., C. Christine Fair, and Jamison Jo Medby. Conflict under the Nuclear Umbrella: Indian and Pakistani Lessons from the Kargil Crisis. Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand, 2001. “Warring Nations: India and Pakistan.” Straits Times Press (Singapore), 5 July 1999.

KARMA. See Upanishadic Philosophy.

KARMA YOGA. See Bhagavad Gı¯ ta¯.

KARNATAKA A state in South India, Karnataka has an area of 74,051 square miles (191,791 square kilometers). In 2001 its population was 52.7 million. Its capital is Bangalore, and the language is Kannada, which belongs to the Dravidian family of languages. The name of the state means “highland,” which refers to its Deccan plateau, though Karnataka also has a coastline of about 185 miles (300 kilometers). The state in its present form was established in 1956, but its name was changed from Mysore to Karnataka only in 1973. It consists of two areas: the former princely state of Mysore and the Kannada-speaking districts of the erstwhile Bombay presidency, which were merged with Mysore to form a unified linguistic state. The maharaja of Mysore had signed the treaty of accession to India immediately after the attainment of indepedence. The legislature of the Bombay presidency had decided as early as 1938 that the Kannada-speaking districts should be merged with a future linguistic state. There was a dispute concerning the Belgaum and Karwar districts later on, since they had a sizable Marathi-speaking population, but they remained in Karnataka. The state has many ancient monuments. The Mauryan emperor Ashoka had some of his famous inscriptions installed there in the second century B.C. Later, this area became a stronghold of Jainism. The huge statue of a Jain Tı¯ rtha¯nkara at Sravanbelgola is an impressive example of this tradition. In the northwestern part of the state, the Chalukya dynasty of Badami (Vatapi) created several beautiful temples in the seventh and eighth centuries A.D., which were influenced by the style of the Northern Gupta dynasty. Pattadakal, one of these temple towns, has been recognized by the United ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as a World Heritage site. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Hoysala dynasty established the beautiful temples of Belur and Halebid. From the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries, the Vijayanagar empire dominated the region. Its capital, Vijayanagar, (City of Victory) is located near Hampi, about 185 miles (300 kilometers) north of Bangalore. Bijapur, in the northwestern part of the state, houses one of the most impressive monuments of Muslim architecture, Gol Gumbaz, the seventeenth-century mausoleum of Sultan Muhammad Adil Shah of Bijapur, which has the widest cupola in the world. Karnataka is a stronghold of the Congress Party. It does not have a state party like its neighbors Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, though the Janata Party had played this role and ruled the state for some time after it had lost its importance as a national party. In the assembly elections of 2004, the Congress Party lost many seats while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) captured 79 seats, an unprecedented party success in a southern state. Even though the BJP won the largest number of seats of any party in the assembly, the Congress Party (with only 64 seats) managed to form a new government with the help of other parties. With the exception of Bangalore, Karnataka has no big industrial cities. There are only two other major urban centers in this state: Mysore and Hubli-Dharwar. The latter consists of two separate towns that have formed a joint municipal corporation. Dharwar is a university town, and Hubli is a major trading center. In addition, there are some important district towns, such as Belgaum, Bellary, and Mangalore. As far as per capita income is concerned, Karnataka is close to the national average. Dietmar Rothermund BIBLIOGRAPHY

Desai, P. B. History of Karnataka. Dharwar: Kannada Research Institute, 1970. Diwakar, R. R. Karnataka through the Ages: From Prehistoric Times to the Day of the Independence of India. Bangalore: Government of Mysore, 1968. Gururajachar, S. Some Aspects of Economic and Social Life in Karnataka (AD 1000–1300). Mysore: Prasaranga, 1974.

KARTIKEYA. See Shiva and Shaivism.

KASHMIR Since the partition of India in 1947, the state of Jammu and Kashmir has remained a bone of contention between India and Pakistan, provoking three wars between the two countries. In 1989 a secessionist 11

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movement, supported by Pakistan, arose in the Valley of Kashmir, demanding freedom from India. The two countries hold irreconcilable positions on Kashmir. For Pakistan, the state of Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory, and its future should be determined through a plebiscite in conformity with a United Nations Security Council resolution; India considers the state an integral part of its territory. India builds its case on the legal accession of Jammu and Kashmir and on subsequent elections through which the people of Kashmir created their own constitution and their own successive civil governments.

Historical Background The state of Jammu and Kashmir, with its three distinct regions of the Valley of Kashmir (predominantly Muslim and Kashmiri-speaking), Jammu (majority Dogri-speaking Hindus) and Ladakh (majority Ladakhispeaking Buddhists), is a relatively recent political and geographical entity. Prior to the mid-nineteenth century, these three regions existed separately. In March 1846, under the terms of the Treaty of Amritsar, the British transferred the territories of Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh to Jammu’s Raja Ghulab Singh. This transfer was in return for a payment by the raja to the British of 7.5 million rupees. Because of Britain’s trade interests in Central Asia and its concerns over Russian expansion, the Jammu and Kashmir state was quickly integrated into princely British India. Until the partition of India in 1947, the state of Jammu and Kashmir remained under the rule of the Hindu Dogra rulers. After the death of Raja Ghulab Singh in 1856, the state was ruled by Maharaja Ranbir Singh (1856–1885), Maharaja Pratap Singh (1885–1925), and Maharaja Hari Singh (1925–1947). As a result of British interventions in the Dogra rule, various administrative, constitutional, and educational reforms were introduced, the major beneficiaries of which were the Hindus, both from Jammu and the valley. They directly benefited from a new state-subject ordinance (1927) that restricted government employment exclusively to citizens of the state. Kashmiri Muslims, who constituted the vast masses of uneducated and exploited peasantry, remained largely untouched by these reforms. Muslim grievances first found a voice in 1931 when the Muslim Conference of Kashmir, under the leadership of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, launched a protest. In 1939 Abdullah was to transform the Muslim Conference into a mass-based secular, socialist nationalist movement against Dogra rule, called the National Conference. Sheikh Abdullah invoked the fourteenthcentury Kashmiri historical and cultural concept of Kashmiriyat to unite both Hindus and Muslims in opposition 12

India’s View of the Disputed Territory of Jammu and Kashmir

to Dogra rule. This indigenous concept of Kashmiriyat, while not excluding the presence and influence of religion, emphasizes syncretism and tolerance for all Kashmiri religions, differentiating both Kashmiri Hindus and Muslims from their counterparts elsewhere. The National Conference ushered in a new ideological agenda, underlined in the New Kashmir Manifesto, seeking constitutional reforms, a bill of rights, a national economic plan for eradicating poverty land reforms, and the right to self-determination. In 1946 the National Conference launched a “Quit Kashmir” movement against Dogra rule and received complete support from the Indian National Congress and its leadership. After the British granted independence to India and Pakistan, Jammu and Kashmir was one of only three Princely States not to accede either India or Pakistan. In October 1947 the Pathan tribesmen of the North-West Frontier province of Pakistan invaded Kashmir. Unable to defend the state, Maharaja Hari Singh signed the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Instrument of Accession dated 26 October 1947 and requested India’s military assistance to free the state from that tribal invasion. In accepting the offer of accession under special circumstances, Governor-General Lord Mountbatten informed the maharaja that the question of accession should be settled by a referendum to the people, once law and order was restored in Kashmir and the invaders had been pushed out. India’s Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru confirmed the conditional acceptance of Kashmir’s accession to India. The Indian army succeeded in driving the tribal invaders from some two-thirds of the state, which has remained under Indian jurisdiction, with the other third staying under Pakistan’s control. Sheikh Abdullah headed the Emergency Administration in the state from its accession until March 1948.

India’s Complaint to the United Nations On 1 January 1948, under Article 35 of the Charter of the United Nations, the government of India lodged a complaint to the Security Council against Pakistani “aggression” against the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The complaint explained the circumstances leading to Hari Singh’s accession of Kashmir to India and provided evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in aiding the tribal invaders, who were still occupying a substantial portion of the state’s territory. In April 1948, the Security Council set up the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP). In the UNCIP Resolution of 13 August 1948, accepted by both India and Pakistan, both consented to a cease-fire, and to the withdrawal of Pakistani forces from the state of Jammu and Kashmir, to be followed by the withdrawal of the bulk of Indian forces in stages to be determined by the Commission. Part 3 of the resolution laid out a framework for a plebiscite in the state. Even though India’s initial complaint of Pakistani aggression had been earlier verified as legitimate when UNCIP delegates, who had arrived in India in early July, observed that Pakistan had sent troops to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the 13 August resolution put Pakistan on a par with India. Both were asked to withdraw their troops, which amounted to denying any legality to the accession treaty between the maharaja of Kashmir and India, making Kashmir a disputed territory until a plebiscite was conducted under peaceful and fair conditions. Initially, irresolvable difficulties over procedural matters led to the nonimplementation of both the original UNCIP resolution of August 1948, and the extended resolution of 5 January 1949, which sought demilitarization and the appointment of a plebiscite administrator. In the early 1950s, the domestic situation in the valley, combined with Pakistan’s military alliance with the United States, led India to abandon its prior agreement to hold a plebiscite in Kashmir. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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In response to a Hindu nationalist movement in Jammu calling for full integration of the state into India, Sheikh Abdullah began to support the idea of an independent Kashmir. In the Jammu region—where a majority of the population were Dogra Hindus, emotionally attached to the Dogra Rajput dynasty—the Praja Parishad Party, strongly linked to the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), began agitating in 1952 for complete accession and full integration of the state of Jammu and Kashmir to India. The movement received vocal support from the militant Indian Hindu party, Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS), and its leader Shyama Prasad Mookerjee. Though the movement lost momentum after Mookerjee’s death in the Kashmir valley, its Hinduchauvinistic demands made a powerful impact on Sheikh Abdullah’s decision to call for a third option for the state: independence. In July 1953, the Working Committee of the National Conference, under the presidency of Abdullah, proposed four alternatives for the settlement of the Kashmir dispute: a plebiscite to choose among the three options of accession to India, accession to Pakistan, or independence; independence for the whole state; independence for the whole state with joint Indo-Pakistan control over foreign affairs; or the Dixon plan (partition of the state, with Jammu and Ladakh going to India, and independence for the Kashmir Valley). It is alleged that in a meeting with U.S. Senator Adlai Stevenson, the latter had encouraged the Kashmiri leader to repudiate accession to India and declare Kashmir independent. Although this report was repeatedly denied, Nehru became increasingly suspicious of U.S. intentions. On 9 August 1953, India arrested Abdullah and replaced him with Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad. During 1954 and 1955, the United States signed three different military assistance agreements with Pakistan. In the absence of any resolution of the Kashmir problem, India viewed the U.S.–Pakistan military pacts as enhancing the military power of Pakistan, which could then be used against India. Although in February 1954, U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower tried to assure Prime Minister Nehru that the decision of the U.S. government to provide military assistance to Pakistan was not aimed against India, Nehru believed that U.S. support to Pakistan undermined the ability of the United Nations to realize a so-called impartial solution to the Kashmir problem.

Jammu and Kashmir’s Constitutional Status within the Indian Federation In January 1950 the Indian Constituent Assembly approved Article 370, outlining Jammu and Kashmir’s political relationship with the Indian Union. Article 370 of the Indian Constitution was applied to the state under the “Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) 13

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Order, 1950.” This article, while restricting the central government’s legislative power to the areas of foreign Affairs, defense, and communications, allowed the state government to legislate on all residuary issues. A subheading of this Article states that the constitutional provisions with respect to Jammu and Kashmir are temporary. At the time of the creation of the Indian Constitution, India remained firm on its offer of a plebiscite to the people of Kashmir. The Indian leadership, particularly Nehru, apparently had complete faith in the positive outcome of a plebiscite in Kashmir—an attitude that changed entirely in 1953. Article 370 also made provision for the revocation of the temporary constitutional arrangement. In September 1951, elections to the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly were held, and in November 1951, the assembly was convened. In July 1952 the leaders of Jammu and Kashmir and India entered into the “Delhi Agreement,” which laid out the basic principles and framework within which the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly would proceed with its work. The seven components of this agreement related to the application of the provisions of the Constitution of India to citizenship, fundamental rights, the emergency powers of the Indian president, the division of powers between the state and the central government, the abolition of Dogra rule, the retention of the state flag, and the acceptance of Urdu as the official language of the state. The Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir was proclaimed on 26 January 1957. Its special features included: provisions with regard to the citizenship of the people of Kashmir and their classification into a special category of “Permanent Residents”; the Directive Principles of State Policy, outlining the socialist agenda of the New Kashmir Manifesto of the National Conference Party; internal autonomy to the state in all powers except foreign affairs, defense, and communication; and a parliamentary system of government, with its elected head, Sadar-Riyasat, a Permanent Resident of the state. The constitution determined that the legislative assembly be composed of 100 members chosen through direct election, based on universal adult franchise. Out of these 100 seats, 25 were reserved for the territories of the state under the “occupation” of Pakistan. The citizenship provisions in the new state constitution were closely guarded by the Kashmiri leadership so that nonresidents were disallowed to seek employment, to buy property, and to participate in elections. In the constitution, citizens of the state are defined as “all those people who were born and residing in the territories of the state, when it was founded by the Maharaja Gulab Singh in 1846, the people who settled in the state later but before 1885, the people who settled in the state under 14

special permission before 1911, and the people who took permanent residence in the state and acquired immovable property under the ‘Ijazat Nama Rules’ before May 14, 1944” (Teng, Bhat, and Kaul, p. 210). Although in 1959, with the extension of the powers of the Election Commission of India to conduct and control elections in the state, a slow and steady integration of the state into the Indian union began, the state has remained protective of its citizenship requirements—an essential ingredient in strengthening the Kashmiri identity and maintaining its distinct status within the Indian federation.

The State’s De Facto Integration within the Indian Union The years 1957 to 1974 witnessed the extension of various entries in the Union and the Concurrent Lists of the Indian Constitution to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, with the approval of the state legislature. As all three governments in the state, under the respective leaderships of Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, G. M. Sadiq, and Mir Kashim, existed with the approval of the Indian central government, the local legislature’s approval was hardly problematic. The original Article 370, the first Presidential Order of 1950 and 1954, has been amended several times in order to make most of the provisions of the Indian Constitution applicable to Jammu and Kashmir. In 1956, Article 356, allowing the central government to impose President’s Rule, and Article 357, empowering Parliament to confer upon the president the power of the state legislature, were applied to Jammu and Kashmir. The same year saw the changes in the designations of the head of state and the head of the government, respectively, from Sadar-i-Riyasat to governor and from premier to chief minister—bringing the state in line with other federal units in India. In 1967 the Jammu and Kashmir Representation of the People’s Act was brought into conformity with the Central Law, enabling the Election Commission to appoint retired judges of the high courts of other states as members of the Election Tribunal. It also authorized the commission to interfere during the elections at the vote-counting stage in case of suspected irregularities. Articles 248, 249, and 250 of the Indian Constitution have been extended to the state so that the central government may legislate in matters of state jurisdiction. Under these constitutional provisions, the Indian Parliament would legislate on any matter not enumerated in the Union List. Article 248, in particular, gives extensive powers to the central government to interfere in state matters under the pretext of defending Indian sovereignty and preventing activities, including terrorist acts, directed against the territorial integrity of India, or causing insult to the Indian national flag, the Indian national anthem, and the Indian Constitution. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Patronage Politics and the Repression of Dissidence During the period of Jammu and Kashmir’s de facto integration into the Indian union, the state government employed the complementary strategies of patronage distribution and repression of democratic opposition. Through the use of large transfer payments from the central government (amounting to almost half of the state government revenues), the state expanded its governmental sector and became the largest employer. During the twenty-five years between 1964 and 1989, the public sector’s share of economy more than doubled, from under 5 percent to 10 percent. This rapid expansion of the governmental sector becomes even more glaring when one realizes that the state paid negligible attention to the economic development of the region. The state leadership made only limited attempts to develop the region’s manufacturing and industrial sectors. Consequently, rampant corruption prevailed within the state. Middle- and upper-middle-class Kashmiris took advantage of the expanded educational facilities, thus creating a massive burden on the state to accommodate the newly educated within governmental and state-supported institutions such as hospitals, schools, and social service institutions. During the integration era, another significant characteristic of Kashmir politics was the leadership’s determination to suppress political dissent. Whenever a dissident group tried to set up an opposition party, that group was either absorbed into the ruling party or simply outlawed. Until 1974 no effective opposition existed in the state. Any groups splintering from the dominant ruling party were quickly reabsorbed into it. The real opposition to Jammu and Kashmir’s integrative politics was to come from two groups: the Plebiscite Front (formed by Sheikh Abdullah, and his close associate Mohammed Beg, after Abdullah’s arrest in 1953) and the religious pro-Pakistan Jamait-i-Islami. Both groups served as significant avenues for those demanding self-determination for the people of Kashmir. The two groups were barred on and off by the ruling party from participating in the governing process. It is alleged that the Indian leadership viewed the emergence of an effective opposition as a threat to India’s “national interests.” As a result of limited public presence, the dissident groups remained ineffective in mobilizing the Muslim population of the valley toward their goal of holding a plebiscite. This was evident by their inability to take advantage of two significant political events in Kashmir, the “disappearance” of a holy relic in 1964 and the Pakistani armed infiltration into the valley in 1965. The Muslim population generally has a dedar (showing) of the holy relic (a hair from the prophet Muhammad’s beard) after the Friday noon prayers at ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Srinagar’s Hazrat Bal Mosque. Its disappearance in the winter of 1964 brought the Kashmir capital to a standstill. Daily processions went through the streets, with anger expressed at the Jammu and Kashmir state government. Religious tension was so high that the Kashmiri Hindus soon joined the Muslims in their mass protest. The government of India quickly got involved and sent an emissary, Lal Bahadur Shastri, to the valley to coordinate the recovery and the authentication process with the Central Investigative Agency and local religious leaders. Once it was found, Kashmir’s Mirwaiz Maluvi Farooq authenticated the relic. The Indian government’s sensitive handling of the dispute averted further crisis, and denied the dissident groups an opportunity to convert the Kashmiri Muslim population’s religious outrage into anti-Indian sentiment. In 1983, although the electoral success of opposition groups was not significant, managing as they did to win only one seat in the legislature, it provided impetus to several dissident factions to fight a united battle in the next elections. For the 1987 assembly elections, an eleven-party oppositional alliance, the Muslim United Front, was created. Despite the overwhelming popularity of the Front, the group won only four seats. There were widespread accusations of rigging of the elections, thus setting the stage for the birth of a violent secessionist movement in the valley in 1989.

The Secessionist Movement A mass-based secessionist movement, accompanied by political insurgency, began in the Kashmir Valley in 1989. Its immediate catalyst was the rigging of the 1987 elections and the unpopular alliance between Kashmir’s ruling party, the National Conference, and the India’s Congress Party. Overnight, dozens of secessionist groups emerged in the valley, demanding sovereignty and freedom (azadi) from the Indian state. The two most prominent among these groups were the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), demanding unification of the Indian and Pakistani sides of Kashmir and seeking independence for all of Kashmir, and the Hizbul-Mujahideen, demanding an Islamic state and unification with Pakistan. Despite its killing of some Kashmiri Hindus in 1989 and 1990 (causing the departure of the small minority of Hindu Pandits from the valley), the JKLF claimed that its movement was essentially secular and that a unified Kashmir has room for both Hindus and Muslims. During the early stages of the movement, various Islamic fundamentalist groups failed to impose strict Islamic laws and customs, such as the compulsory veiling of Muslim women. This lack of adherence to the strict practices of Islam, as well as the popularity of the JKLF vision of freedom, led the Islamic secessionist groups to rethink 15

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their strategy. To maintain the movement’s momentum and to unify several secessionist groups, an apex organization of more than thirty militant-nationalist groups, the Kul-Jammat-e-Hurriyat-e-Kashmir (All Kashmir Freedom Front), was formed in 1993. Pakistan’s involvement in Kashmir’s secessionist movement goes beyond its claims of moral, political, and diplomatic support. During 1988 several secessionist leaders crossed the border into Pakistan-controlled Azad (“Free”) Kashmir, received military training and weapons, and returned to the valley prepared for insurgency. By the end of 1989, the secessionist groups were successful in bringing about the total breakdown of the civil and administrative structures of the government. In 1990 the state of Jammu and Kashmir was brought under India’s President’s Rule with a massive occupation by the Indian armed forces. For the first three years of the movement, militant violence was accompanied by harsh repression by Indian armed security forces, inflicting serious human rights violations. With increased international pressure from human rights agencies, as well as Pakistan’s continued support for the Kashmiri cause in various global forums, the Indian government took steps to discipline its security forces, setting up its own human rights watch agencies. India also began to reactivate the electoral process within the state, setting the stage for a return to civil government. Since 1996 two legislative elections and three parliamentary elections have taken place. With each election, voter participation has risen consistently, with the exception of a few urban-based constituencies in the valley. The valley’s response to India’s efforts to reactivate civil society can be attributed to three factors: a general fatigue of the population with the movement, the inability of the secessionist groups to deliver azadi, and the continued violence by both the secessionist groups and India’s security forces. Consequently, the secessionist groups have come to be divided into two camps: the moderates who seek a peaceful solution to the Kashmir issue, and the extremists who continue to use violent means to promote their cause. The latter, which includes a small portion of the local HizbulMujahideen cadres, is largely dominated by violent Pakistan-based and sponsored groups such as Lashkar-eTaiba, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, and Jaish-e-Mohammed. The Fida
iyyeen suicide attack is the newest and one of the more successful strategies adopted by these groups. The Kashmiri secessionist groups are now in the hands of the imported Islamic groups, sidelining the indigenous nationalist groups. Since 1997 the Indian state has taken advantage of this situation and has adopted a dual strategy, on the one hand, to engage the moderate secessionist groups in dialogue, and on the other hand, to pursue the elimination 16

of the militant leadership. Until 11 September 2001, the engagement of the moderates brought about limited successes. However, the events of 11 September and the resulting war on terror have been responsible for isolating the extremists and giving the moderates an opportunity to seek a peaceful solution to the Kashmir issue. The October 2002 attack on the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly and the December 2002 attack on the Indian Parliament by Pakistan-based militant groups have strengthened India’s hand vis-à-vis Pakistan in convincing international public opinion that the Kashmir issue cannot be resolved without Pakistan’s commitment to prevent its territory from being used for political insurgency in Kashmir. In April 2003, during his visit to Kashmir, India’s prime minister A. B. Vajpayee made a promise to the Muslim population of the valley to seek a peaceful solution to the Kashmir problem and to extend India’s hand of friendship to Pakistan. In January 2004, following several confidence-building measures to reactivate relations between the two countries, which had become severely strained after the attack on India’s Parliament, India and Pakistan set in motion a process of dialogue on several issues, including Kashmir. Meanwhile, the Indian central government and the Hurriyat leadership have begun a series of talk to seek a peaceful resolution to the Kashmir issue. While it appears that it might be difficult for India to convince Pakistan to abandon its claims to Kashmir and to accept India’s solution of making the Line of Control the international border, from the Indian perspective there is greater hope of coming up with a reasonable solution, such as increased constitutional autonomy for the state of Jammu and Kashmir, which might satisfy the moderate secessionist groups within the valley. Reeta Chowdhari Tremblay See also Jammu and Ladakh; Pakistan and India

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Behera, Navnita Chadha. State, Identity and Violence: Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. New Delhi: Manohar, 2000. Bose, Sumantra. The Challenge of Kashmir: Democracy, SelfDetermination, and a Just Peace. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1997. Ganguly, Sumit. The Crisis in Kashmir: Portents of War, Hopes of Peace. Cambridge, U.K., and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Jha, Prem Shankar. Kashmir, 1947: Rival Versions of History. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996. Schofield, Victoria. Kashmir in Conflict: India, Pakistan, and the Unfinished War. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2000. Teng, Mohan Krishen, Ram Krishen Bhat, and Santosh Kaul. Kashmir: Constitutional History. New Delhi: Light and Life Publishers, 1997. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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K A S H M I R PA I N T I N G

Krishna Serenading Radha, c. 1730–1750. Watercolor and ink on paper. The Kashmir artistic tradition faced extinction during the political and religious upheaval of the fourteenth century, but had revived significantly by the eighteenth century, finding expression in the illuminations of manuscripts, horoscopes, folk art, almanacs, and individual paintings, with religious themes dominating. BENOY K. BEHL.

Thomas, Raju G. C., ed. Perspectives on Kashmir: The Roots of Conflict in South Asia. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1992. Wirsing, Robert G. Kashmir in the Shadow of War: Regional Rivalries in a Nuclear Age. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 2003.

KASHMIR PAINTING Our understanding of the painting traditions of Kashmir is limited by a dearth of surviving evidence. Manuscript paintings dating prior to the seventeenth century are virtually unknown. In related media, the mural paintings at the sites of Alchi (Ladakh, western Tibet) are the only indicators of a previously existing Kashmiri style and its eastward dissemination. Moreover, the manuscript paintings from the eighteenth century onward are so varied in style—ranging from the heavily Persianized to the purely indigenous (often termed “folkish”)—that it is not possible to identify a single style among these as characteristic of the region. An inversion of the interpretative paradigm, then, is perhaps more beneficial. Rather than perceiving Kashmiri painting to be a directionless and mediocre imitation of styles ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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from the Islamic and Indic worlds, another perspective could be more productive: the wide and rich variety of painting styles evidenced in but two centuries of surviving examples demonstrates that Kashmiri painters were not only prolific, but that they also fruitfully incorporated the many stylistic strains reaching them through commercial and other conduits connecting the region with lower India, Central Asia, and the Near East. The earlier Buddhist foundations at Alchi date to around the late twelfth or early thirteenth century. Like other such establishments, this complex also took advantage of its location on a hub of trade routes linking the region with Kashmir and Central Asia. Efforts to “purify” their Buddhist practices inspired Tibetan monks to visit learned counterparts in Kashmir, and to invite Kashmiri masters and artists eastward. Thus, the Sumtsek’s mural paintings at Alchi evince a relationship to the decoratively intricate, jewel-colored, compositionally balanced works likely admired at Kashmiri courts. Moreover, Kashmir’s— and western Tibet’s—linkages with larger Indic traditions are also discernible here: the series panels, separated by classicizing columns, are reminiscent of Gandharan stupa 17

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drum plaques (2nd–4th centuries), while the repetitive patterning of some of the figures’ textiles hearkens to the western Indian style of painting prevalent in North India between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. Exceptions to the gap in small-scale painting before the seventeenth century are the rare manuscript covers. Manuscript covers provide evidence not only of the continuity of the hybrid Tibetan-Kashmiri style, but also of significant Buddhist patronage. The 1719 Sha¯hna¯ma-ye Firdausi provides a point of comparison for undated manuscripts, and its illustrations show local adaptation of a Persianate style that probably originated in Shiraz. There is a spontaneity and expressiveness in the figures that becomes rote in later works. Reminders of Shirazi and Timurid painting in general include the intricate arabesques of the textiles. In addition, the landscape lacks depth and, other than the detailed shrubbery, is schematic in its undulating lines. The figures’ features, however, are rooted in local tastes as expressed in Hill painting, particularly the large, welldefined eyes and facial profiles. Together with the strong presence of Persianinfluenced painting styles in Kashmir, pre-Mughal idioms were still alive among the Kashmiri painters. Indeed, illustrations of Indic texts are convincing examples of the vast range of styles used freely by the painters, regardless of the illustrations’ contents. An image from a Bha¯gavata Pura¯n.a of about 1750 shows a subtle amalgamation. Basohli elements, particularly the rounded facial profiles with prominent noses and large eyes, are brought together with identifiably “Sultanate” characteristics. Compositionally, the whole image is strongly reminiscent of the late fifteenth-century Canda¯yana’s depiction of Canda¯’s flight with her lover Laur (Bharat Kala Bhavan, Banares [Varanasi]); meanwhile, the rendering of the striated domes and eaves, and the delicate color palate, are not unlike the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya’s (formerly known as the Prince of Wales Museum) Canda¯yana (c. 1525–1570). The image that captures and quite possibly personifies the trajectory of Kashmiri painting through the nineteenth century is one of the Goddess. She is shown in her apotropaic aspect, with many arms and weapons; her eyes look confidently ahead. Her aspect is somewhat softened by the mythical thousand-petaled lotus on which she sits, gently radiating and forming a transition to the muted colors and delicate arabesques of the shamsa. The image as a whole is the perfect balance of the stylistic poles discernible in Kashmiri painting. The traditions inherited from the Islamic world are abbreviated in the neatly executed shamsa, which makes reference to manuscript illustration, a practice associated with (though not exclusive to) Islamic culture. Simultaneously, the Goddess is 18

shown complete with all accoutrements, executed in a style representing the indigenous, “folkish” traditions abundantly evidenced in illustrations of Indic religious texts. The two styles represent the vast spectrum of creative resources available to Kashmiri painters throughout the common era. Alka Patel See also Sculpture and Bronze Images from Kashmir

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Goepper, Roger. Alchi: Ladakh’s Hidden Buddhist Sanctuary. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1996. Goetz, Hermann. Studies in the History and Art of Kashmir and the Indian Himalaya. Wiesbaden, Germany: Otto Harrassowitz, 1969. Goswamy, B. N., and Eberhard Fischer. Pahari Masters: Court Painters of Northern India. Zürich: Museum Rietberg, Artibus Asiae Supplementum 38, 1992. Goswamy, Karuna. Kashmiri Painting: Assimilation and Diffusion; Production and Patronage. Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1998. Khandalavala, Karl J., and Moti Chandra. New Documents of Indian Painting: A Reappraisal. Mumbai: Prince of Wales Museum of Bombay, 1969. Losty, Jeremiah. The Art of the Book in India. London: British Library, 1982. Pal, P., ed. Art and Architecture of Ancient Kashmir. Mumbai: Marg Publications, 1989.

KASHMIR SHAWLS Of the myriad varieties of textiles for which India was famous over much of Europe and Asia from at least the time of the Roman Empire, the Kashmir shawl stands out as the only woollen one. Although its precise origin is lost in a haze of myth and legend, it is safe to say that it grew out of a unique combination: a superlatively fine fiber plus the highly developed set of skills necessary to work the fiber. Or, as a nineteenth-century government report put it, “It is impossible not to admire the felicitous conjunction, in the same region, of a natural product so valuable and of workmen so artistic.” The raw material of the Kashmir shawl, known in the West as “cashmere,” is called pashm in India, and the fabric woven from it pashmina. It is the warm soft undercoat grown by goats herded on the high-altitude plateaus of Tibet and Ladakh as protection against the bitter winter cold. Combed out by their herders at the onset of summer, for centuries the entire clip was sent down in a series of complex trading operations to Kashmir, the only place whose craftspeople had developed the skills necessary to process it. In the 1820s it was estimated that between 121,000–242,000 pounds (55,000–110,000 kilograms) a year reached Srinagar, to be made up into some 80,000 to ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Pashmina Shawl. Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, Kashmir or pashmina shawls were an essential element of the Indian royal and aristocratic lifestyle. In the late twentieth century they became a symbol of wealth in the West. JYOTI M. BANERJEE / FOTOMEDIA.

100,000 shawl pieces. The very finest shawls were woven from toosh, a similar but even finer material produced by the Tibetan antelope or chiru, an undomesticated species. Although the precious wool has always been procured by slaughtering the chiru, the amount consumed was negligible, probably less than 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) a year, insufficient to make a dent in a population estimated in the millions. By the early twenty-first century, however, the situation had changed; wholesale slaughter in the late twentieth century brought the chiru population down to a few thousand. It is recognized as an endangered species, and trade in its products is banned.

skill of spinning such delicate fiber was passed down over generations from mother to daughter.

Manufacture of Shawls

The classic Kashmir shawl employs a weave technically known as 2:2 twill tapestry, which is unique to this product. Tapestry implies that the design is woven into the very structure of the fabric; the weft is inserted not by a shuttle, but by a series of small bobbins filled with various colored yarns. Depending on the complexity of the design, one line of the weft may involve dozens or scores of such insertions. In Kashmir the technique is known as kani or tilikar, referring to different names for the bobbins.

The transformation of the raw pashm, a mass of greasy fibers, into a fabric renowned for its fineness involved a series of processes. The shawl entrepreneur supplied the pashm in its raw state to women who, in the seclusion of their homes, undertook the painstaking and laborious task of removing the coarse outer hairs from the fleece; they then cleaned it with rice-flour paste, and spun it on wheels similar to those used everywhere in India. The ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Meanwhile the entrepreneur had employed a patterndrawer to design the pattern of the proposed fabric. The pattern was passed to a color-master who filled in the colors, and finally to a skilled scribe who reduced the colored pattern to a shorthand form known as talim, which enabled a complex pattern to be recorded on quite a small piece of paper. The dyer then dyed the spun yarn in the required colors. Other workers prepared the warp and fixed it to the loom; only then did the actual weaving begin.

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Tapestry is an ancient textile technique, practiced in different areas all over the world in a plain weave, in which the weft passes alternately over and under one warp-thread at a time. It was only in Kashmir, however—and to some extent in Iran—that shawl weavers used a twill weave for tapestry, in which the weft passes over and under two warp-threads at a time, the pairing of the warps changing with every line of the weft. It is presumed that this modification was adopted to minimize the strain on the delicate pashmina warp-threads. Fabrics woven in twill exhibit a characteristic very fine diagonal rib, which enlivens the finished pattern. The borders were often woven on a silk warp, to strengthen the shawl’s edging, and sometimes on a separate loom, being attached to the main body, with almost invisible seams, by the rafugar, or needleworker. The creation of intricate patterns in tapestry requires an extraordinary level of manual dexterity, though in the case of shawls this was exercised with no scope for creativity, rather in mechanical response to the instructions read out from the talim by the master weaver. The shawl weavers were bonded to their employers by a system of perpetual debt, paid barely enough to sustain them and, on top of that, were taxed to the limit by the government. The rooms where they worked were often dimly lit and badly ventilated, and it was said that a weaver could be distinguished by the pallor of his face, his sickly physique, and above all, his delicate hands. Tapestry weaving is a highly laborious and timeconsuming technique, and by the middle of the nineteenth century, as the designs became ever more elaborate, particularly fine shawls took months and even years to complete. Accordingly, the manufacturers adopted two distinct methods of speeding up production, both exploiting the skills of the rafugar. On the one hand, not only the borders, but also the main bodies of the shawls began to be woven in pieces—sometimes literally hundreds, for elaborate all-over patterns—using several looms. It was the rafugar’s job to join these with seams so fine that only the expert eye can discern them. The other method was to abandon the twill-tapestry technique altogether, the rafugar’s skill being applied to the creation of patterns by embroidery in silk on plain pashmina fabric. The word “shawl” originally referred not so much to a garment as to a fabric, and the long shoulder mantle—in India originally worn by men—was only one of many varieties of shawl-goods. Shoulder mantles were woven in pairs, and often stitched together back-to-back; they were called do-shala. Square items, qasaba or rumal, were made for women’s wear, and long narrow ones, patka or shamla, for men’s sashes. Lengths of shawl fabric in all-over designs, jamawar, were intended to be tailored into men’s coats ( jama). Apart from these four main categories, about twenty-five varieties of shawl-goods were pro20

duced, including turbans, stockings, horses’ and elephants’ saddlecloths, carpets, curtains and other kinds of hangings, bedspreads, and shrouds for tombs.

Shawl Design The earliest extant shawl fragments, probably from the mid- to late seventeenth century, have the two ends decorated with a simple and elegant repeated design of single flowering plants—a favorite motif of Mughal decorative art from about the 1620s—enclosed in a floral meander. Gradually the single flower evolved into a bouquet, or a flowering bush (buta), assuming a cone shape, typically with the topmost bloom inclined to one side. In the later eighteenth century the plain background acquired a sprinkling of small flowers; by the 1820s, as this grew denser and more elaborate, it necessitated an outline to emphasize the main motif. Thus emerged the quintessential theme of shawl design, the bent-tip buta, which later became known as the “paisley,” after the town in Scotland whose weavers, in the mid-nineteenth century, cornered the British market for imitation Kashmir shawls. This perennially popular design motif, noticed on objects as diverse as nineteenth-century buckles in Cyprus and contemporary coffee mugs in Scotland, to say nothing of fabrics for all sorts of uses, may be regarded as Kashmir’s gift to the world. The bent-tip buta found expression in myriad forms, often incorporated into other design formats, of which the most common were flower-filled stripes—especially for jamawar—and roundels. Square shawls often had a large floral medallion in the center, with quarter-circles in the four corners. They are known as chand-dar, or moon shawls. As the nineteenth century progressed, the patterns on the shawl’s ornamented ends became increasingly complex, and also larger, often invading the central field entirely, leaving no empty space at all. At the same time, French manufacturers were adapting and developing Kashmiri design for their own Jacquard-woven shawls, while sending such modified designs to be made up in Kashmir. The resulting elaborate and fanciful shawls represented an astonishing degree of technical virtuosity. Today’s embroidered shawls are made up in the whole gamut of traditional designs, modified only by the difference in technique.

History of the Kashmir Shawl The earliest explicit documentation of the Kashmir shawl comes in the late sixteenth century in the Aini-Akbari, a comprehensive description of the Mughal empire in the time of the emperor Akbar. The Ain, however, is clearly referring to an already mature industry, which must have been flourishing for decades if not centuries. Kashmiri tradition attributes its origin to the great fifteenth-century sultan, Zain-ul-Abdin, who is said ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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to have encouraged the immigration of textile workers from abroad, possibly from Iran and central Asia. For over two centuries Kashmir shawls and shawlgoods were an essential element of the Indian royal and aristocratic lifestyle. Demand was such that by the middle of the eighteenth century there were said to be 40,000 shawl looms in and around Srinagar. In 1752 Kashmir was wrested from the Mughals by the Afghans, who ruled until 1819. They, and the Sikh and Dogra governments that followed, imposed such heavy taxes that in the 1820s the revenue to the state from the shawl-weaving industry was greater than that from all other sources combined. As a result of these exactions the number of looms fell, and those weavers who could escape from the serflike conditions under which they were employed emigrated to the Punjab and elsewhere in North India. Even so, according to a report in the early 1820s, at least 130,000 people were working in the industry, while the value of shawls exported was about 60 lakhs (6 million) rupees. Shawls were commissioned in designs according to the demands of different markets. As well as plains India, many Asian countries also imported Kashmir shawlgoods from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. They are mentioned in Ottoman customs records as early as 1624. Jamawar was popular in Iran, while both there and in the Ottoman Empire shawls were part of men’s wear, worn as turbans, or around the waist as sashes. Even distant Egypt imported shawl-goods; they were admired by officers of Napoleon Bonaparte’s army in 1798, some of them purchasing shawls to take home as gifts. The empress Josephine’s passion for shawls set an enduring fashion in France. They had already entered the fashion scene in Britain around 1780, brought home by returning officers of the East India Company, and were regularly imported from the beginning of the nineteenth century. Over the next seventy years, export to Europe became the mainstay of the industry. At the same time, flourishing industries in “imitation Indian shawls” sprang up in both France and Great Britain; in fact, the Jacquard loom was invented as an attempt to reproduce the intricacies of Kashmir design by mechanical means.

Decline and revival. The decline of the kani shawl in the last decades of the nineteenth century is often attributed to changes in European fashion; but the story is more complex. Social and political shifts in India and elsewhere in Asia led to erosion of the luxurious lifestyles of elites; as they started to adopt Western fashions, the shawl became irrelevant. By the early twentieth century, reduction in demand had led to the almost complete disappearance of kani work. The industry was kept alive by increased production of embroidered shawls, which came to be considered an essential accessory to the winter wardrobe of middle-class women in north India. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Remarkably, however, in the early years of the twentyfirst century there are indications of a purposeful revival of the kani shawl. The development of a wealthy business class in India, especially after the economic reforms of the 1990s, created a market for such highly priced luxury goods, in response to which some astute Kashmiri shawlmakers have initiated the resuscitation of almost extinct skills. Thus, despite political upheavals, Kashmir’s craftspeople—the designer, the spinner, the plain weaver, the rafugar and now once again the kani weaver— continue to keep alive the region’s tradition of manufacturing textiles of unparalleled delicacy and beauty. Janet Rizvi See also Textiles: Early Painted and Printed

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The classic text on the Kashmir shawl industry in the nineteenth century is the report by William Moorcroft; it was published in an abbreviated form in William Moorcroft and George Trebeck, Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan and the Panjab; in Ladakh and Kashmir; in Peshawar, Kabul, Kunduz and Bokhara, from 1819 to 1825 (2 vols., 1841; reprint, Karachi and New York: Oxford University Press, 1979). Unfortunately this edited version is neither comprehensive nor entirely accurate; serious students will want to go to Moorcroft’s original text in the Moorcroft MSS in the Oriental and India Office Collection of the British Library in London: MSS Eur. E113 and D264. The nineteenth-century picture is updated in Charles Ellison Bates, Gazetteer of Kashmir (1873; reprint, New Delhi: Light and Life Publishers, 1980). Otherwise, most nineteenthcentury travelers’ accounts need to be treated with caution. There are however useful references for the pre-Moorcroft period in Jean Deloche, Voyage en Inde du Comte de Modave 1773–1776 (Paris: Ecole française d’extrême-orient, 1971), and Mountstuart Elphinstone, An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul (London 1815). The best general modern study is still John Irwin, The Kashmir Shawl (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office for the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973). For detailed analysis of the evolution of design in Kashmir shawls, with numerous illustrations, consult Frank Ames, The Kashmir Shawl and its Indo-French Influence (Woodbridge, UK: The Antiques Collectors Club, 1986). For the technique of “patchwork” shawls, see Grace Beardsley, “Piecing in Twill Tapestry Shawls of Persia and Kashmir” in Textiles as Primary Sources: Proceedings of the First Symposium of the Textile Society of America (St. Paul, Minn.: Textile Society of America, 1988). Jaya Jaitly, ed. Crafts of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh (Ahmedabad, Mapin Publishing, 1990) usefully puts the Kashmir shawl into the context of other woven textiles of the region, and its crafts in general; while Michelle Maskiell, “Consuming Kashmir: Shawls and Empires, 1500–2000” in Journal of World History, 13, (1) 2002, uses the Kashmir shawl as a peg on which to hang a trenchant critique of the imperialist appropriation of the skills and sensibilities of colonized peoples. 21

KASI (BANARES)

KASI (BANARES). See Geography; Varanasi.

KATHAK. See Dance Forms.

KATHAKALI. See Dance Forms.

KAYASTHS The Kayasth caste has been historically important in all three of its regional incarnations, in North India, Maharashtra, and Bengal. The Chitragupta Kayasths of North India, the Prabhu Kayasths of Maharashtra, and the Bengal Kayasths of Bengal, with mother tongues of Hindi, Marathi, and Bengali, respectively, fulfilled similar roles in their regional political systems. All three were “writing castes,” traditionally serving the ruling powers as administrators and record keepers. Although there is a modern tendency to see the three regional divisions as part of a single caste, they did not historically intermarry, and when Kayasth is used alone, it usually means the North Indian or Chitragupta community. Members of all three communities were noted for their adaptability. Their linguistic and administrative abilities gained them key places in service to various rulers, and the Chitragupta and Bengal communities in particular were noted for their early movement into service with the incoming Muslim rulers of North India. They learned Persian, Urdu, and even Arabic, and many Chitragupta Kayasths accompanied the Mughals to Rajputana and the Deccan, becoming significant intermediaries in these new regional administrative systems as well. One theory about the historical origin of the Kayasths postulates that the caste arose only in medieval times, formed by those who adapted themselves earliest to service with the new rulers. In fact, this Kayasth caste is hard to place in the Brahmanical varn.a system, the four caste categories elaborated in post-Vedic Sanskrit literature. The men participated fully in the various Muslim and Mughal court cultures developing throughout India since medieval times. They typically learned Arabic, Persian, or Urdu from Muslim clerics and began their education with a bismillah ceremony, like Muslims in those days. Sometimes the men’s names reflected their competence and membership in India’s medieval bicultural synthesis: Iqbal Chand, Jehangir Pershad, or Mahbub Karan. However, in their domestic life the Kayasths subscribed to high caste Hindu regulations governing social intercourse and life-cycle rituals. Their marriage and death customs followed high caste Hindu models, and they maintained hereditary relations with specific Hindu service castes, Brahmans and barbers, for example. Historical sources fail to link many medieval and modern castes to the Brahmanical four-varn.a system, yet 22

attempts have been made, by Kayasths themselves or by the British Indian legal system at various times and places, to place Kayasths in one of the four varn.as. The Kayasths have been considered either Brahmans because of their literacy and learning, Kshatriyas because they were closely linked to rulers (and, at least in the Deccan, often to military service as well), or Sudras because they deviated significantly from the orthodox practices enjoined upon the first three varn.as (this last in a legal decision in British Bengal, but elsewhere as well, where Kayasths ate meat and drank wine). The most common Kayasth myth of origin avoided this problem of varn.a classification by cleverly postulating the creation of a fifth varn.a, the Kayasths, to keep records concerning the other four. Brahma, they say, after creating the four varn.as, created the first Kayasth, pen and inkpot in hand. This was Chitragupta, and his chief employment was for Yama, the god of death, recording the good and bad activities of all men. Chitragupta then had twelve sons by two wives, and the subcastes or endogamous divisions among the North Indian Kayasths are traced to these sons. The subcastes have patron deities, home areas, and nominal gotras (exogamous divisions within the endogamous subcaste, a feature of Brahman caste organization); in reality, family distinctions, or als, played important roles in marriage arrangements. Members of an urban literate caste wherever they appear in India, the Kayasths seem to have always reflected a close association with the ruling power. This was true under the Mughals, when a number of outstanding Kayasths attained very high rank in the Mughal empire, and true under the British in British India, when Kayasths were among the first to learn English and continue their administrative service. It is true today in independent India’s modern democracy; Lal Bahadur Shastri, prime minister of India from 1964 to 1966, was a Chitragupta Kayasth, and there have been other distinguished Kayasths in government service. In the past, Kayasths have sometimes been criticized for this adaptability, most often in connection with their service to the Mughals (it is said that they are like a cat on a wall, they can fall to either side), but Kayasths are not the only caste or caste cluster notable for its adaptability to ruling powers, and sometimes men said to be Kayasth are actually Khatri or Brahmo-Khatri, castes with similar names and traditions. In fact, Kayasths, like many other upwardly mobile individuals or castes in Indian history, exemplify flexibility and adaptability. They continue today to use their administrative and now professional capacities to integrate India’s diverse communities. Karen Leonard See also Caste System; Hyderabad ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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KERALA, COALITION POLITICS

Communist Party Leader E. K. Nayanar. The longest-serving chief minister of Kerala, Communist Party leader E. K. Nayanar before his death in 2004. The portraits of his idols (Marx, Engels, and Lenin) look on. INDIA TODAY.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kane, P. V. “The Kayasthas.” New Indian Antiquary 1 (1929): 739–743. Leonard, Karen. Social History of an Indian Caste: The Kayasths of Hyderabad. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978. Prasad, Munshi Kali. The Kayastha Ethnology. Lucknow, 1877. Shastri, Pandit Raghuvara Mitthulal Shastri. “A Comprehensive Study into the Origin and Status of the Kayasthas.” Man in India 11, no. 2 (1931): 116–159. Varma, Gopi Nath Sinha. A Peep into the Origin, Status and History of the Kayasthas. 2 vols. Bareilly, 1929, 1935.

KERALA, COALITION POLITICS In parliamentary democracies, political parties constitute the most essential elements for a nation’s successful functioning. In India, coalition politics came rather late, mainly because the omnibus Indian National Congress, the institutional vehicle that brought freedom to India, remained the multipolar party that ruled India’s central government for three decades after independence. Non-Congress parties could not effectively organize coalition opposition to ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Congress at the national level prior to 1975. In Kerala state, however, soon after its formation in 1957, Congress lost to the Communist Party of India, elected with minority parties who supported its Left Democratic Front. Between 1957 and 2003, there were twelve midterm elections to Kerala’s state assembly. Of the eighteen state governments since 1957, only two were led by a single party, and both of these were short-lived. Congress led its own United Democratic Front coalition, which alternated in governing Kerala with the Left Democratic Front. The United Democratic Front government, led by Congress’s A. K. Antony, has ruled the state since May 2001. The Bharatiya Janata Party could not win even a single seat in Kerala’s 140-member state assembly, or any of Kerala’s 20 seats in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of India’s Parliament) or its 9 seats in the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of India’s Parliament). Coalition politics in Kerala has built consensus among parties and public, and political discourse in Kerala is constantly energized through the dynamics of multiparty debates within the coalition framework. As in London’s 23

KERALA, MODEL OF DEVELOPMENT

parliamentary democracy, Kerala’s opposition is expected to play a constructive, responsible role. The Treasury Bench, on the other hand, estimates the potential of the rival front to come to power in the next election, thereby providing much-needed political stability and continuity. Viewed from this perspective, Kerala can serve as a model to most other Indian states, though forging an ideological unity is hardly possible in a democratic pluralist culture. G. Gopa Kumar See also Kerala, Model of Development

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Chander, N. Jose. Coalition Politics: The Indian Experience. New Delhi: Concept Publishers, 2004. Gopa Kumar, G. Regional Political Parties and State Politics. New Delhi: Deep and Deep, 1986. John John, Pariyarathu. Coalition Governments in Kerala. Trivandrum: Institute for the Study of Public Policy, 1983. Nair, A. Balakrishnan. Government and Politics of Kerala. Thiruvananthapuram: Indira Publications, 1994. Ramakrishnan Nair, R. The Middle Class Rule in Kerala. Tivandrum: Kerala Academy of Political Science, 1978. ———. Social Structure and Political Developments in Kerala. Trivandrum: Policy Studies Institute, 1978. Thomas, E. J. Coalition Game Politics in Kerala. New Delhi: Intellectual Publishing House, 1985.

KERALA, MODEL OF DEVELOPMENT Modern Kerala formally emerged as a constituent state of the Indian Union on 1 November 1956, comprising three regions: Travancore, Cochin, and Malabar. The Linguistic Reorganization Committee, which recommended the reorganization of India’s states based on the majority’s common language, created modern Kerala as a state in which Malayalam was the unifying language. Kerala has 392 miles (631 kilometers) of narrow coast in India’s southwest, facing the Arabian Sea. It occupies a narrow but fecund strip of land (1.5 percent of the total land area in the country), supporting 4.5 percent of the nation’s population. Beautiful Kerala, called “God’s own country,” is one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations. Kerala, a model for other Indian states, has achieved social and educational development comparable to most Western nations; this achievement is not yet matched by industrial growth or economic development. Its excellent record in education, health, and land redistribution provides a unique case for arguing that the basis for true development is social and human, rather than economic. As of 2003, Kerala enjoyed a literacy rate of over 90 percent, only slightly higher among males than females. Kerala pioneered equitable land reforms and elected India’s first Communist state government by democratic 24

means in 1957. The population growth rate in Kerala is the lowest in India (0.9 percent per annum), competing with China’s near zero population growth rate. Population pressure on Kerala’s meager land is very high, however, with 819 persons per square mile (the third highest in India). The low level of infant mortality (14 per thousand) is an indicator of the excellent health standards of the population, among both males and females. Life expectancy, averaging over 70 years for males and 75 for females, is the highest in India. The social status of Kerala’s women is very high, supported by nuclear families, and Kerala has a high rate of females in the workforce. The state also recorded the lowest rate of child labor in the country. The younger population of Kerala is well trained in both software and hardware programming. Many people born in Kerala work in other parts of India, as well as in the Gulf countries, Europe, and North America. One in four Kerala households has received some of its income from the Gulf states since 1973. Of the total of some 40 million people born in Kerala, more than 8 million were living and working outside Kerala State in 2003. However, Kerala’s high levels of human development are not matched by industrial growth or generation of employment opportunities within the state. The economy became stagnant and nonproductive in many sectors, except tourism. Globalization policies had already affected its traditional industries, such as coir, hand-loomed textiles, and cashew nuts, thereby multiplying the number of unemployed in the state (25 percent in 2003, the highest in India). Nearly 4.2 million people were unemployed, and the proportion of nonworkers (including children, the elderly, and the disabled) in Kerala (68 percent) is higher than the national average (61 percent). The per capita income in Kerala, however, is estimated at 19,460 rupees, compared to 16,047 rupees at the national level. All the villages and towns of Kerala are electrified and 91 percent of the rural habitations have access to potable water. According to the National Sample Survey, the population below the poverty line constituted only 12.5 percent, the lowest of any state in the country. At the political level, Kerala has a healthy tradition of bipolar coalition politics in the backdrop of a multiparty system. The Indian National Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) are the two leading parties. Smaller parties, like the Communist Party of India, the Indian Union Muslim League, the Kerala Congress (M), the Kerala Congress (J), and the Kerala Congress (B), compete for power in the coalitions. The State Legislature has 140 seats, besides 9 seats in Delhi’s Rajya Sabha (the Upper “House of the States” in Parliament) and 20 seats in Lok Sabha (the Lower “House of the People”). ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Though in 2003 54 percent of Kerala’s population were Hindus, it had the largest concentraton of Muslims (25 percent) after Jammu and Kashmir. It also had 20 percent Christians and a small but ancient Jewish minority.

Political History The princely states of Travancore and Cochin were not under the direct control of Britain’s paramount imperial power, but the Malabar region was part of the British Raj’s Madras presidency. Historically, Travancore led the other regions in terms of social development. Its maharaja welcomed Christian missionaries, who established churches, schools, and colleges, offering a liberal Western education to the masses. The missionaries also pioneered the state’s struggles against harsh Hindu practices, including untouchability and slavery. The struggle for responsible government in Travancore and the national freedom struggle in Malabar gave Kerala a galaxy of social and political leaders, known as the “four Ms”: maharajas, missionaries, movements, and Marxists. Kerala’s Communist Party transformed itself into a powerful social democratic force, and adapted to India’s parliamentary democratic framework. It headed seven coalition state governments, besides its own brief interlude of Communist rule, implementing land reforms and decentralization measures long before other states. High wages for workers and powerful trade unions were also contributions of the Communist Parties in Kerala. The Kerala model of social development is unique in several respects. Its nearly egalitarian society, positive records in health, education, decentralization, and population planning, and its active coalition system of governing have made the state a vibrant civil society, transforming itself from traditional, ancient feudal roots. Kerala concentrated more on investing in its people rather than in markets. Human resources are the mainstay of its development. G. Gopa Kumar See also Development Politics BIBLIOGRAPHY

Centre for Development Studies. Poverty, Unemployment and Development Policy: A Case Study of Selected Issues with Reference to Kerala. New York: United Nations, 1975. Drèze, Jean, and Amartya Sen, eds. Indian Development: Selected Regional Perspectives. Delhi and New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Franke, Richard W., et al. Kerala: Development through Radical Reform. New Delhi: Promilla, 1994. George, K. K. Limits to Kerala Model of Development: An Analysis of Fiscal Crisis and Its Implications. Thiruvananthapuram: Centre for Development Studies, 1993. Government of Kerala. Economic Review. Thiruvananthapuram: State Planning Board, 2001. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Harilal, K. N., and K. J. Joseph. “Stagnation and Revival of Kerala Economy: An Open Economy Perspective.” Economic and Political Weekly (7–13 June 2003). Harris, John. Depoliticising Development. New Delhi: Left Word, 2003. Isaac, Thomas T. M., and Richard W. Franke. Local Democracy and Development. New Delhi: Left Word, 2001. Jeffrey, Robin. Politics, Women, and Well Being: How Kerala Became a Model. Houndmills, U.K.: Macmillan, 1992. Parayil, Govindan. Kerala: The Development Experience. London and New York: Zed Books, 2000. Prakash, B. A. “Gulf Migration and Its Economic Impact: The Kerala Experience.” Economic and Political Weekly (12 December 1998). Prakash, B. A., ed. Kerala’s Economy: Performance, Problems, Prospects. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1994. Tornquist, Olle. The Next Left? Democratisation and Attempts to Renew the Radical Political Development Project: The Case of Kerala. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 1995.

KERKAR, KESARBAI

(1892–1977), Hindustani classical singer. Kesarbai Kerkar, who hailed from the state of Goa, was born into a community of professional singers. Her first tutelage was under Abdul Karim Khan of the Kirana Gharana (lineage) for a brief period. It was followed by intermittent study under Ramkrishnabuwa Vaze for a period of ten years. Barkatullah Khan, a leading sitar player of the early twentieth century, also tutored her in singing. She mastered the complex singing style of Alladiya Khan of the Jaipur-Attarauli Gharana, under whom she studied from 1921, training for at least eight hours a day. Kesarbai sang with a broad and flawless “aa” (a musical utterance of the vowel “aa”), which invested her music with a unique luminosity. Her vigorous, weighty execution of double-stranded fast tonal patterns left listeners speechless with wonder. She could swoop from a high octave to a deep, resonant low octave, while retaining a remarkable uniformity of volume. Continuity of sound through amazing breath control was one of the principal tenets of her singing style, and this seemingly unending breath lent grandeur to her music. Fast tonal patterns woven into the rhythmic passages compelled the constant attention of the listener. Kesarbai won many national honors. Her recording of a thumri in Bharavi was selected by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration for inclusion in a collection of Earth’s best music, which will be sent on the spaceship Voyager. Amarendra Dhaneshwar

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Deodhar, B. R. Pillars of Hindustani Music. Mumbai: Popular Prakashan, 1993. 25

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Haldankar, Shrikrishna. Aesthetics of Agra and Jaipur Traditions. Mumbai: Popular Prakashan, 2001. Ranade, Ashok D. On Music and Musicians of Hindoostan. New Delhi: Promilla, 1984.

KESARI. See Tata, Jamsetji N.

KHAJURAHO Khajuraho, a medieval temple town, situated in the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India, preserves twenty-five magnificent Hindu and Jain temples. Known in inscriptions as “Kharjura-vahaka,” it flourished between A.D. 900 and 1150 as the capital of the powerful Chandella Rajputs, who ruled the region called Jejakabhukti, now the Bundelkhand area in Madhya Pradesh and southern Uttar Pradesh. Surrounded by hills of the Vindhya Range, the original town extended over 8 square miles (21 sq. km) and contained, according to tradition, about eighty-five temples, built by the successive Chandella rulers, their ministers and merchants. The Chandellas were originally local chieftains and feudatories of the imperial Pratihara monarchs of Kannauj, but by the middle of the tenth century they consolidated power and became independent rulers. The Chandella prince Yashovarman acquired the prestigious image of Vaikuntha-Vishnu from his Pratihara overlord, and he celebrated his victory by building a splendid temple (now called Lakshmana temple), the first in the elite Nagara style, at Khajuraho around 950. The Chandella kings encouraged poetry, drama, dance, and music. Two of the rulers were themselves poets. Above all, they were great sponsors of temple art. Under them Khajuraho became one of the most important temple towns of northern India. In 1022 the Muslim historian Alberuni mentioned “Kajuraha” as the capital of the Chandella kingdom. From the twelfth century, however, the Chandellas shifted their activities to the nearby town of Mahoba and the hill forts of Kalinjar and Ajaygadh, and consequently the temple building at Khajuraho lost momentum. Even so, it remained a religious center, important enough to attract the attention of the Arab traveller Ibn Battuta, who visited Khajuraho in 1335 to see its jogis (yogis, mendicants) and their magical feats. Thereafter, Khajuraho gradually slipped into oblivion. Some five centuries later, Captain T. S. Burt, a British engineer, spotted the vanished temples amidst a jungle growth that had all but covered them, and he presented his colorful account to the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1838. The local maharaja of Chhatarpur undertook extensive repair work on the temples between 1842 and 26

Vishvanatha Temple, Part of the Khajuraho Complex. The progressive ascent of the temple’s numerous indentations and projections converges at the pinnacle, a soaring curvilinear spire. In the late twentieth and early tweny-first centuries, the temple, like others in the tenth-century complex, has provided the backdrop for dramatically lit, nighttime dance performances. AFP / GETTY IMAGES.

1847. Major General Alexander Cunningham, later the first director general of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), visited the site from 1852 onward and systematically described the temples in his ASI Reports. Khajuraho monuments have remained under the care and supervision of the ASI, which has identified eighteen mounds and has undertaken excavation of at least two. Today Khajuraho is a small village, serving the tourist trade with its fine hotels. It has three museums: the Archaeological Museum, the Jain Antiquities Museum, and the Tribal and Folk Art Museum. It can be approached by road from Jhansi (109 miles [175 km]) and Satna (73 miles [117 km]), and by air from Delhi, Varanasi, and Agra. Khajuraho was designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization in 1986. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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The Temples Of the twenty-five temples, eighteen are dedicated to the two main Hindu deities: ten to Vishnu, including his powerful composite form, Vaikuntha; and eight to Shiva. There is one temple dedicated to the sun god, one to the esoteric Yoginis (goddesses), and five to the Jain patriarchs of the Digambar sect. A colossal inscribed image of the seated Buddha was also found at this site, indicating the prevalence of Buddhism as well, though on a limited scale. An inscribed image of Hanuman attests to the worship of this monkey god. Khajuraho thus was a religious center where many cults flourished. A synthesis of cults is also indicated by a number of syncretistic icons that combine divinities, as well as by the presence of sculptures of Hindu divinities on Jain temples, and vice-versa. The Hindu religious systems of Khajuraho were Tantra-based but, unlike the skull-bearing Kapalika sect, were not extreme Tantric. The temples are clustered in three zones. The western zone, located near the Shivasagar tank, is associated with the Chandella royal family, and it includes some of Khajuraho’s most magnificent monuments: the Varaha shrine (c. 940); Lakshmana or Vaikuntha-Vishnu temple, built by King Yashovarman (consecrated in 954); Vishvanatha, built by King Dhangadeva (inscribed 999); Matangeshvara (c. 1000), originally a memorial shrine with a colossal lingam 8 feet (2.5 m) in height; and the Kandariya Mahadeva, possibly built by King Vidyadhara (c. 1030). The eastern zone comprises Jain temples built by merchants, most notably the Parshvanatha (c. 955), Ghantai (c. 970), and Adinatha (c. 1075). The southern zone includes the Chaturbhuja temple (c. 1100) with a majestic 9-foot-(5.6 m) tall icon of a unique form of Vishnu— some scholars believe it to represent the Dakshinamurti (Teacher) form of Siva—and the Duladeva temple (c. 1130), the latest in the series, built on a stellate plan. An open-air sanctuary, dedicated to the Sixty-four Yoginis (c. 900), is situated to the southwest of the Shivasagar tank, away from the main western group of temples. Recent excavations by the Archaeological Survey of India at the Shatdhara mound in the northeastern zone have yielded early Chandella (pre-950) sculptures and architectural remains of a temple complex, affiliated to Vishnu (Dwarf incarnation). Excavations at the Bijamandala mound, in the southern zone, have exposed remains of an eleventh-century Vaidyanatha Shiva temple (112 ft [34 m] long), the largest discovered at the site.

Architectural features. Though affiliated with different religious sects, the temples have a cognate architectural style. Except for the early shrines of the Sixty-four Yoginis (c. 900), built of rough granite, and the Lalguan Mahadeva (c. 900–925) and Brahma (c. 925), constructed of both granite and sandstone, other temples from the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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middle of the tenth century are constructed of finegrained sandstone in the Nagara style with its typical curvilinear spire over the sanctum. Unlike the Orissan temples in eastern India, which have their halls as separate structures, the Khajuraho temples are compact, integrated monuments consisting of four or five units: the cella or sanctum (garbhagriha), vestibule (antarala), large hall (maha-mandapa), hall (mandapa), and porch (ardhamandapa). Four of the large temples are sandhara; that is, they have an inner ambulatory. Two of these, namely the Lakshmana and the Vishvanatha, are five-shrined (panchayatana), with subsidiary shrines in the four corners of the platform. Most of the temples are erected on the eastwest axis and get the direct rays of the rising sun. They have no enclosure walls, as in the case of the South Indian and Orissan temples, but they have their own separate platforms to demarcate their sacred space. The Khajuraho temples stand on a tall jagati (platform). They have three main divisions on elevation: basal story (pitha), wall (jangha), and the roof or spire (shikhara). The basal story consists of a series of ornamental moldings depicting rows of human activities (narathara), “masks of glory” (kirtimukha), and geometrical designs. The wall section is divided into two or three sculptural zones, consisting of figural sculptures— celestial maidens (apsaras), griffins (vyalas), couples (mithunas), and divinities. The numerous indentations and projections carried upward from the ground level to the superstructure of the temple produce a wonderful dramatic effect. The architectural imagery of the Khajuraho temples helps us to conceive of the temple as a model of the cosmos. While the subordinate structures such as the porch and halls have pyramidal roofs, the sanctum is covered with a soaring curvilinear spire with graded peaks clustered around it. The architect creates the semblance of a mountain by emphasizing the progressive ascent of superstructures of the component units, converging at the pinnacle. Significantly, the inscriptions of Khajuraho compare the temple with Mount Kailasa, the abode of Shiva, and Mount Meru, the center of the universe. The Kandariya Mahadeva, 102 feet (31 m) high, mountainlike with its eighty-four minispires clinging to its central spire, is a masterpiece of Indian temple art. The plan of the cella of the large temples (Lakshmana, Vishvanatha, Kandariya, Parshvanatha) resembles a three-dimensional yantra (geometric diagram), with the eight corners guarded by the regents of space (dikpalas). The three cardinal niches represent manifestations or incarnations of the main divinity enshrined in the sanctum. The iconic scheme is integrated with the religious cult of the temple. 27

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Sculpture Sculpture in the Khajuraho temples is harmoniously integrated with their architecture. The unified design of the temple, with its horizontal bands of sculpture, is perfectly balanced with the rising verticality of the building. Both the exteriors and interiors of the temples are lavishly carved. Ceilings are decorated with intricate geometric and floral designs. Pillar brackets bear sculptures of griffins alternating with maidens, standing under trees, carved in high relief. The sanctum doorway is decorated with conventional auspicious motifs: mithunas (couples), creepers, and dwarfs. It is guarded by dvarapalas (door. keepers) and is “purified” by the river goddesses, Ganga¯ and Yamuna, sculpted in human form. Indeed, the profusion of figural sculptures is overwhelming. Cunningham counted 646 figures on the exterior and 226 in the interior of the Kandariya Mahadeva alone.

Style. The human body is depicted in sensuous charm in a variety of postures and attitudes. The figures are not muscular, as in Greek sculpture. The beauty of the human form is revealed from many angles through diaphanous clothes. Sculptors were adept at turning the figure around its axis. The figures of nymphs combine two views of the front and the back. Divinities smile softly and stand with languid grace. The measured elegance of the divine images, as well as the spontaneity and lyricism of the loving couples on the walls, is remarkable. There are three phases in sculptural portrayal: prior to 950, in the excavated Shatdhara mound, revealing elements of the style prevalent in Kannauj and other sites of the Pratiharas overlords; c. 950–1100, in the principal temples starting with the Lakshmana up to the Chaturbhuja temple, with typical Chandella features such as serenity of expression, tight volumes, and full modeling of figures; c. 1100–1200, the style seen in the Duladeva temple (c. 1130), with sharp features, angular bodies, and heavy ornamentation, represented also in other late Chandella sites such as Jamsot, near Allahabad. Several categories of sculptures are seen in temples, among which are divinities, sacred and mythic animals, celestial maidens, and secular themes, including erotic figures.

Divinities. Divine images consist of cult icons in the sanctum, generally standing formally in sama-bhanga (equipoise, or weight equally on two feet), and carved according to canonical formulae; and multiple manifestations of the principal deity in the cardinal and surrounding niches. Also present are the dikpalas (regents of space), Matrikas (Divine Mothers), grahas (planets), and numerous lesser divinities, demigods such as flying vidyadharas, gandharvas (celestial musicians), and ganas (dwarfs) placed in different parts of the temple. There are 28

hundreds of images of divinities holding manuscripts in hand, suggesting the importance of knowledge and learning. Several deities—Vishnu, Shiva, Surya, Devi, and Jinas—sit in yogic positions.

Sacred and mythic animals. There are carvings in the round of Nandi, Shiva’s bull, and of Varaha, the boar incarnation of Vishnu. The zoomorphic icon of Varaha (c. 925), installed in the western complex of the site, is represented as a cosmic form, carrying more than 650 divinities of the Hindu pantheon carved in relief on its massive animal body. The vyala, a mythic composite animal, is seen in its many varieties, with faces of different animals and birds, combined with the body of a lion. Mythic aquatic creatures, makaras, decorate arches and niches. Secular scenes. Warriors, dancers, musicians, hunting parties, sculptors at work, and royal figures are mainly sculpted in relief on the rows of the plinth, and in small niches of the superstructure. Men fighting a vyala or a lion is a favorite theme. Idealized portraits of a king and queen performing a ritual, carved in the round, are now in the site museum.

Erotic figures. It should be clarified that Khajuraho is neither synonymous with erotic sculpture nor do the temples illustrate the Indian handbook of love, the Ka¯ma Su¯tra, as is generally believed. Erotic themes constitute not even one-tenth of the total sculpture on the temples but have drawn undue attention. Erotic depiction was believed to be a good omen because it symbolized regeneration, and it was part of a larger tradition prevalent across India. As an auspicious and apotropaic motif, it is depicted on most temples of India—Hindu, Buddhist, Jain—built between 900 and 1300, and it is represented according to the sculptural canons of the region in which the temple is situated. Generally, however, the figures are small and placed in insignificant location. At Khajuraho, as in Orissan temples, erotic figures are placed, apart from several parts of the temple, conspicuously on the main wall. The sculptures are large in size and in graceful postures. Significantly, at Khajuraho the artists have made creative use of this already established theme, the conjunction of opposites, the union of the male and female principles, by placing it on the juncture walls (of sandhara temples) that link the hall for devotees and the sanctum of the divinity, to metaphorically convey something beyond the erotic. Though the surface meaning is erotic, a hidden meaning lies beneath, expressing a subtle yogic-philosophic concept—the goal of nonduality.

Maidens. Apsaras or nayikas appear on all temples of the Nagara style, whether Hindu or Jain. They are shown absorbed in various everyday activities, such as applying makeup, removing a thorn from the foot, writing a letter, or carrying a baby. One of the favorite motifs of Khajuraho ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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artists is a woman undressing to throw a scorpion from her body, a poetic device that expressed a fertility theme. The apsaras of Khajuraho and other medieval temples are auspicious art motifs whose origins can be traced back to vegetation spirits (yakshis) and fertility figures of early Indian art at Sanchi, Bharhut, and Mathura. In fact, the architectural Vastu texts specifically ordain sculptures of female figures on temple walls.

Meaningful Form The art of Khajuraho reflects the highly sophisticated and Sanskritized ethos of the Chandella court. Knowledge of Sanskrit and its grammar was highly appreciated by the elite. Sculptors were innovative in creating images with unique iconography, for instance, the god Sadashiva with four feet (padas), suggestive of (by way of a pun on the Sanskrit word pada = foot = part) the four parts (padas) of the Shaiva religious texts. The architects of Khajuraho were learned in Shastric (textual) traditions, as inscriptions and designs in the temples testify. They place sculptures in architectural schemes not just to decorate temples or to fill space, but also to convey concepts of cosmological import. In the Lakshmana temple, for instance, the architect arranges collective images of planetary divinities (grahas) on the exterior plinth, as if encircling the temple, thereby projecting the concept of the temple as Mount Meru, the mythical mountain in the center of the universe, around which the planets revolve. The most refined achievement of Khajuraho art, the Kandariya Mahadeva temple, embodies the symbolism of the yantra in the plan of its sanctum, the imagery of the cosmic mountain in its multiturreted spire, and a visual expression of the Shaiva metaphysical system in its iconic . scheme. Shiva-linga, considered the sign of the unmanifest ultimate reality, is installed in the center of the sanctum, with graded manifestations of Shiva, emanations and subemanations, in the surrounding niches, as if radiating the power of the divinity enshrined within. The temple is an ordered whole in which images are part of an integrated scheme. The Khajuraho temples represent a creative moment in Indian art when artistic talent combined with religious aspirations to produce a meaningful form. Devangana Desai See also Asiatic Societies of Bengal and Bombay

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Burt, T. S. An account of his visit in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, VIII, 1839. Cunningham, Alexander. Archaeological Survey of India Reports, Vols. II, VII, X, XXI. Simla-Calcutta, 1864–1885. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Desai, Devangana. Erotic Sculpture of India: A Socio-Cultural Study. 1975. Rev. ed., New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1985. ———. “Temple as an Ordered Whole: The Iconic Scheme at Khajuraho.” Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bombay 70 (1995): 38–58. ———. The Religious Imagery of Khajuraho. Mumbai: Franco-Indian Research, 1996. ———. Khajuraho. Monumental Legacy Series. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000. Deva, Krishna. “The Temples of Khajuraho in Central India.” Ancient India Bulletin of ASI, no. 15 (1959): 43–65. ———. Temples of Khajuraho. 2 vols. New Delhi: ASI, 1990. Meister, Michael. “Juncture and Conjunction: Punning and Temple Architecture.” Artibus Asiae 41 (1979): 226–228. Mitra, S. K. The Early Rulers of Khajuraho. Rev. ed., Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1977. Prakash, Vidya. Khajuraho: A Study in the Cultural Conditions of Chandella Society. Mumbai: Taraporevalas, 1967. Zannas, E., and J. Auboyer. Khajuraho. The Hague: Mouton, 1960.

KHALSA. See Sikhism. KHAN, ABDUL GHAFFAR (1890–1988), Pakhtun leader, opponent of partition, proponent of a Pakhtun state. Jailed for twelve years by the British and for fifteen years by Pakistani authorities, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, born in 1890 in Utmanzai in the North-West Frontier province (NWFP), remains a symbol of the values of nonviolence and Pakhtun dignity. Ghaffar Khan’s towering figure was often seen alongside Mahatma Gandhi’s smaller frame, both faithfully adhering to ahimsa (nonviolence) and opposing the partition of India. “Badshah” Khan endured long prison terms and solitary confinements, and was admired as much for his fearlessness as for his principles. He did not hesitate to urge his male Pakhtun followers to acknowledge their harshness to women, or to urge all of South Asia’s Hindus and Muslims to live in friendship. Living on both sides of the boundary between the NWFP and Afghanistan and distributed among numerous tribes, the Pakhtuns were never wholly subdued by armed expeditions launched by the British, who divided Pakhtun territory into insulated “tribal” preserves governed by chiefs loyal to the British and “settled” districts directly run by Britons. Ghaffar Khan’s uneducated father Behram Khan, belonging to the Muhammadzai tribe, possessed lands in the “settled” part—in Utmanzai and elsewhere in the fertile Charsadda valley, watered by the Indus and Kabul Rivers and also by canals built by the British. Though British occupation had offended the Pakhtuns, Behram Khan sensed its longevity and saw its 29

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Ghaffar Khan advocated both Pakhtun reform and Pakhtun autonomy. In 1919 Mahatma Gandhi, who had returned four years previously from his long struggle for Indian rights in South Africa, called for a nationwide nonviolent protest against the repressive Rowlatt “Black” Acts. The anti-Rowlatt rally in Utmanzai that Ghaffar Khan organized and addressed on 6 April 1919 marked the beginning of his nonviolent struggle for Pakhtun and Indian independence. It would bring him bitter prison terms in 1919, 1922 to 1924, 1930 to 1931, 1931 to 1934, 1934 to 1935, and 1942 to 1945. In 1928 he launched the journal Pakthun and the following year his “Red Shirt” Khudai Khidmatgar (Serving Volunteers of God) movement, which included a political dimension. Though most Khudai Khidmatgars were Muslims, the organization included Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, and Parsis. During the 1930s and the early 1940s, the volunteers added up to more than thirty thousand. Each took a pledge to eschew violence and revenge, and to reduce feuds in Pakhtun society. Ghaffar Khan’s nonviolence was doubtless connected to his association with Gandhi, whom he first saw in 1920, but even more to his longing to rescue the Pakhtuns from the custom of badal (revenge) and to the violence of British reprisals. Abdul Ghaffar Khan. Freedom fighter from the northwest provinces of India, Khan was the tireless advocate of Pakhtun autonomy and peaceful Muslim-Hindu coexistence. K. L. KAMAT / KAMAT’S POTPOURRI.

advantages, and sent his boys Abdul Jabbar and Abdul Ghaffar (Jabbar was older by eight years) first to a British-run municipal school and then to the Edwardes Mission School conducted by a Reverend Wigram. Ghaffar Khan would always say that he learned the service of fellow humans from Reverend Wigram. In 1912 Ghaffar married Mehr Qandh of Rajjar village, near Utmanzai. Two years later he made an unsuccessful bid, in company with a few others, to set up a secret anti-British base in the village of Zagai in the tribal territory of the Mohmand Pakhtuns. By this time Ghaffar had come close to Haji Fazli Wahid of Turangzai, a leading Pakhtun foe of British rule. He also visited the nationalist Muslim center of Deoband in the United Provinces, and he started a school, free of British influence, in Utmanzai. In 1915, after having given birth to two sons, Ghani and Wali, Mehr Qandh died of influenza. Five years later, Ghaffar Khan married Nambata, also from Rajjar, who gave birth to a boy, Ali, and a daughter, Mehr Taj, but died in 1924. Two of Ghaffar Khan’s four children— Ghani, later a poet and painter of renown, and Mehr Taj—were sent to the West for their studies. 30

One of the dramatic episodes during the India-wide campaigns of the 1930s occurred in Peshawar’s Kissa Khwani Bazaar. On 23 April 1930, during a crackdown in which a number of Pathans were killed, soldiers of the Raj’s Garhwal Rifles refused to obey their officer’s order to fire at a crowd of unarmed Pathans. In 1934 the presidency of the All-India Congress was offered to Ghaffar Khan, who claimed inadequacy and declined the honor, wary perhaps of being drawn too deeply into nonPakhtun affairs. After elections for provincial power held in 1937 and again in 1946, the Khudai Khidmatgars, who had merged into the Indian National Congress, formed ministries in the NWFP, headed by Ghaffar Khan’s older brother, Dr. Khan Sahib, as Abdul Jabbar was then called. On philosophical as well as practical grounds, Ghaffar Khan opposed the Pakistan demand articulated from 1940 by the Muslim League. His tolerant Islam sanctioned Muslim-Hindu coexistence. Moreover, he feared for the future of Pakhtun culture in a Punjab-dominated Pakistan. Preferring a wider polity, he allied with the Congress until the spring of 1947, when the Congress accepted the subcontinent’s partition. Feeling betrayed, Ghaffar Khan and his Khudai Khidmatgars left the Congress, boycotting the NWFP plebiscite (which went in Pakistan’s favor), calling for a state of Pakhtunistan (land of the Pakhtuns). In the years that followed, when he and his followers were persecuted and imprisoned, Ghaffar ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Khan repeatedly insisted that his Pakhtunistan would remain connected to Pakistan, but Pakistan’s rulers considered him a secessionist. When not in prison he continued to advocate Pakhtun autonomy, nonviolence, and antipoverty policies. Some of his agenda was taken up by his son Wali Khan, who became the president of the National Awami Party that Ghaffar Khan helped found in the early 1950s. From 1965 until his death, Ghaffar Khan divided his time between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he wrote his autobiography and where, in the town of Jalalabad, he built a home. Visiting India in 1969, the centenary of Gandhi’s birth, he spoke candidly about the vulnerability of India’s Muslim minority and what he saw as India’s rejection of nonviolence. In 1987 India honored him with its highest award, the Bharat Ratna. Ghaffar Khan’s death in a Peshawar hospital in 1988 was followed by an unprecedented procession of thousands of Pakhtuns accompanying his coffin across the Khyber Pass to Jalalabad, where, by his choice, he was buried. Rajmohan Gandhi

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Banerjee, Mukulika. The Pathan Unarmed. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001. Caroe, Olaf. The Pathans: 550 B.C.–A.D. 1957. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1983. Desai, Mahadev. Two Servants of God. Delhi: Hindustan Times, 1935. Dupree, Louis. Afghanistan. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1973. Easwaran, Eknath. Badshah Khan: A Man to Match His Mountains. New Delhi: Penguin, 2001. Gandhi, Rajmohan. Ghaffar Khan: Nonviolent Badshah of the Pakhtuns. New Delhi: Viking, 2004. Khan, Abdul Ghaffar (as narrated to K. B. Narang). My Life and Struggle. Delhi: Hind Pocket Books, 1969. Korejo, M. S. The Frontier Gandhi: His Place in History. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1993.

KHAN, ALI AKBAR (1922–), musician and educator who helped popularize North Indian classical music in the second half of the twentieth century. The son of Allaudin Khan, Ali Akbar Khan was born in Shivpur, East Bengal, in 1922. He studied with his father (who also taught sitarist Ravi Shankar) in a context of royal patronage and experimentation. His professional career has included a diversity of roles, including court musician (to the Maharaja of Jodhpur), film composer (including Devi for Satyajit Ray), radio station music director, concert performer, and prolific teacher, and he has received ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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numerous awards and honors. Khan, perhaps more than any other modern Indian classical musician, has demonstrated a flair and an interest for melding Indian sensibilities and Western materials. Ali Akbar Khan’s distinctive approach to the sarod, a North Indian lute, has emphasized original ideas, a rhythmic flair, and collaborative dynamics. His fluent melodic adeptness is evident in his creation of new ra¯gas from existing tunes and motifs as well as in his ability to draw new ideas from old ra¯gas. His performance style features a masterful control of rhythm and time and recognition of the drummer’s art. His Ali Akbar College of Music has two campuses— one in Kolkata and one in the San Francisco area—that have trained a new generation of performers and helped to educate the world about Indian music. More recently, in keeping with his previous musical experiments for film, he has explored cross-cultural musical idioms. Gordon Thompson BIBLIOGRAPHY

Khan, Ali Akbar, and George Ruckert. Introduction to the Classical Music of North India. St. Louis: East Bay Books, 1991. “Khan, Ali Akbar.” Available from ⬍http://www.ammp. com/bio.html⬎

KHAN, LIAQUAT ALI (1895–1951), Pakistan’s first prime minister (1947–1951). Muhammad Liaquat Ali Khan was born in Karnal, Punjab, India, on 1 October 1895. He was the second son of the nawa¯b of Karnal (his elder stepbrother, Sajjad, inherited the title). Liaquat  received his early education at home, studying the Qur an and the Hadith and taking music lessons. He was fond of singing, dancing, and theater. Throughout his life he was known as an amiable and warmhearted person, though reserved. In 1910 he joined the Muhammadan AngloOriental College school at Aligarh. Matriculating in 1915, he entered the college, and graduated in 1918. He was married to his cousin Jehangira Begum; their only child, a son, Wilayat, was born in 1919. Liaquat entered Oxford University in 1920 as a “noncollegiate student,” enrolling in Exeter College there the following year. He received his bachelor of arts in jurisprudence in August 1921. The following year he was called to the Bar from London’s Inner Temple. He returned to India at the end of 1922 and enrolled as an advocate in Punjab’s High Court. Independently wealthy, he did not practice law, instead devoting his life to politics and education, joining the Muslim League in 1923. 31

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Liaquat Ali Khan. In May 1950 the principled Liaquat journeyed from Pakistan to solidify his country’s relations with the United States. Here he addresses a New York City audience. His refusal to tolerate political corruption among his cabinet ministers is widely believed to have led to his assassination a year later. BETTMANN / CORBIS.

He stood, unsuccessfully, in 1923 for election to the Legislative Assembly of India for East Punjab. In 1926, however, he was elected to the Legislative council of the United Provinces, as an independent from Muzaffarnagar District, a Muslim constituency. In the council he founded his own political party, the Democratic Party. He was also one of the leading figures of the Uttar Pradesh Zamindars’ Association, an organization devoted primarily to landlord interests. He had a very successful career in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council, being elected deputy speaker in 1931. In social matters he was liberal, speaking, for example, in favor of education for women; he was conservative, however, on fiscal issues. As a landholder he was concerned about agricultural issues and as a Muslim he was devoted to Muslim interests. He was no bigot, however; his second wife was a Christian, the educator and social reformer, Raana Liaquat Ali Khan. They had two sons, Ashraf and Akber. In 1937 Liaquat was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the United Provinces. 32

In 1928 Liaquat was one of twenty-four Muslim League delegates chosen to attend India’s All-Parties Convention to consider the Motilal Nehru Report on Constitutional Reforms. Mohammad Ali Jinnah was the Muslim League spokesman at the convention, and from that time Liaquat became his lifelong devoted follower. In 1933 Liaquat testified before the Joint Statutory Commission in London, where he again met Jinnah. In April 1936 Jinnah, as president, asked Liaquat to become the general-secretary of the Muslim League. He was to hold that position until 1947, and he was to become Jinnah’s most trusted lieutenant and political adviser. Liaquat was totally loyal, and Jinnah came to depend heavily upon him. In 1939, when Jinnah signed his last will and testament, he appointed Liaquat one of the executors and trustees of his estate. All of the organizational work involving the Muslim League’s committees, conferences, and publications was handled by Liaquat, who spent long days working in the League ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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office in Delhi, while continuing his legislative and educational responsibilities, serving as president of the Anglo-Arabic College in Delhi and as a member of the board of trustees of Aligarh University. Liaquat was elected to the Legislative Assembly of India in 1941, joining Jinnah on the Muslim League bench there, serving as deputy leader of the League’s parliamentary party. In Jinnah’s absence Liaquat became the League’s spokesman. He established the League’s first newspaper, Dawn, as a weekly in 1941, and the following year turned it into a daily. In 1943, when Liaquat was reelected general secretary of the Muslim League, Jinnah called him “my right hand.” In 1945 and 1946 Liaquat was Jinnah’s chief associate at the two Simla summit conferences. In 1946 Jinnah nominated Liaquat to be the British viceroy’s finance member and asked Liaquat to accompany him to London for constitutional talks with Prime Minister Clement Attlee. In 1947 Liaquat issued the controversial “Poor Man’s Budget,” and GovernorGeneral Jinnah later appointed him prime minister of the new state of Pakistan. As prime minister, Liaquat worked diligently to establish the country on a sound organizational footing, a task for which he was ideally suited. Until Jinnah’s death on 11 September 1948, however, Liaquat was overshadowed by the towering figure of Jinnah, whose authority in Pakistan was supreme. From 1947, the issue that poisoned IndiaPakistan relations and made an enormous impact on the political and military history of the country was the conflict over Kashmir, which had been given to India by its Hindu maharaja. Liaquat was successful in raising the issue of Kashmir at the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ conference in 1949. The same year he arranged for the passing of a Directive Principles Resolution, which established the basic principles of Pakistan’s Constitution, which would later be promulgated. Liaquat made a successful trip to the United States in 1950, helping to establish a friendly and lasting relationship between the two countries. Liaquat and the new government had to deal with several serious problems, including the settlement of millions of Muslim refugees from India; the setting up of a central government in Karachi almost from scratch, including the creation of a sound economic system; and the crisis over Kashmir, which immediately led to war between India and Pakistan. Only the Kashmir crisis was not solved within a short time, through herculean efforts by Liaquat and the government. Liaquat was an exceedingly generous man, and when he migrated to Pakistan, he refused to accept any property in Pakistan in exchange for his landholdings in India. His property was all given to his first wife and their son. His refusal to tolerate political corruption among his ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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cabinet ministers is thought to have led to his assassination at Rawalpindi on 16 October 1951, when he was shot at close range. His assassin, Said Akbar, an Afghan, was shot dead immediately by police, and no one was ever charged in what many believed was a conspiracy by members of his own government. Roger D. Long See also All-India Muslim League; Jinnah, Mohammad Ali; Pakistan BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kazimi, Muhammad Reza. Liaquat Ali Khan: His Life and Work. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2003. Wolpert, Stanley. Jinnah of Pakistan. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.

KHAN, VILAYAT (1924–2004), classical North Indian musician. Vilayat Hussain Khan’s virtuosic sitar playing and international tours have helped to define Indian classical music, both in India and abroad, in the second half of the twentieth century. His family’s musical tradition often describes itself as the Imdad Khan ghara¯na¯, after his renowned grandfather, although they also trace their lineage to the even more celebrated musician Tan Sen. Vilayat Khan studied with his father, Inayat Khan, until his death in 1938; he then continued his studies with his mother and her father, Bande Hasan Khan. The family tradition has emphasized the sitar and the surbaha¯r, but Vilayat Khan’s unique background (he had both instrumental and vocal teachers) has led him to integrate vocal devices and idioms into his performances. Indeed, a sitar performance by Vilayat Khan is likely to have a section in which he sings the principal melody. This ga¯yakı¯ ang (singing style) approach to playing the sitar and surbaha¯r marks both his performances and those of his brother, Imrat Khan, and now continues in the playing style of Vilayat Khan’s son, Shujaat Khan. Vilayat Khan’s style of playing and his demeanor on stage hark back to the courtly origins of India’s modern classical music. When Satyajit Ray sought someone to compose music and to direct the music sequences for his film about an aging aristocratic zamindar ( Jalsa Ghar; The music room), he chose Vilayat Khan. Khan’s recordings of the ra¯gs Yaman, Bhairavı¯ , and Jaijaivanti are iconographic for many musicians; the recording of his duets with shahna¯’ı¯ virtuoso Bismillah Khan may be one of the most popular recordings of North Indian classical music. Also noteworthy are his illustrative examples for Jairazbhoy’s The Ra¯gs of North Indian Music (1971) which serve as ra¯ga references for many music scholars. Gordon Thompson 33

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jairazbhoy, Nazir. The Ra¯gs of North Indian Music. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1971. Miner, Allyn. Sitar and Sarod in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Wilhelmshaven, Germany: F. Noetzel, 1993.

KHAYAL Khayal (Arabic-Persian, “lyric” or “imagination”) is perhaps the most important vocal genre in the Hindustani sangı¯ t paddhati, or musical tradition. The origins of khayal are often associated with the famous musician Amir Khusrau. (1253–1325). The sultans of Jaunpur—notably Mohammad Sharqi (1401–1440) and Hussain Sarqi (r. 1458–1499), who were contemporaries of the Mughal emperor Babur—were patrons of musicians who developed khayal. In that era, the genre was “ornate and romantic,” most popular with Muslim musicians, and reflected the growing dominance of Islamic power. Khayal grew in importance in seventeenth-century Jaipur and found a prolific champion in Sadarang (Niyamat Khan), a musician in the court of Muhammad Shah (r. 1719–1748) and a descendant of Tansen. Sadarang was a dhrupad (he composed praise and/or Hindu devotional music) singer who apparently adopted the musical techniques of qawwa¯lı¯ (Sufi devotional music) musicians to create a genre that was both artistically sophisticated and a compelling vehicle for virtuosic performance. Because he and his nephew Adarang were officially dhrupad singers, the performance of this new genre was not part of their duties. However, others could perform khayal, especially if they were disciples, not in direct line with Sadarang and Adarang. Khayal thus offered a contrast to the more austere dhrupad. Chronicles of the seventeenth-century Delhi-Agra rule of Shah Jahan (r. 1628–1658) mention khayaliya¯s (singers of khayal) among the royal performers. In eighteenth-century northern India, hereditary musicians consolidated their power by fostering musical knowledge within their families. The khayaliya¯s of the mid-eighteenth century came from families who specialized in either dhrupad or qawwa¯lı¯ . However, they came to focus increasingly on khayal as their primary performance medium. The earliest performers were primarily Muslim. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, performers further developed khayal, and this style of singing became the predominant vocal genre in the improvisatory system of North Indian music. A full performance of khayal is organized of two main parts—bada¯ khayal and chota¯ khayal—and each of these has at its core a musical theme, the cı¯ z (Persian, “thing, idea”). The melodic structure of a cı¯ z serves as the frame34

work around which performers improvise. Sometimes, the melody is the framework upon which the singer creates elaborate melodic detail. At other times, the singer presents the cı¯ z in a simple, unadorned form, contrasting the fixed composition with elaborate extemporizations. In the bada¯ khayal (Hindustani, “big” khayal), a singer performs in very slow tempo (ati vilambit lay). Tı¯ nta¯l, Ekta¯l, and Jhu¯mra¯ are the most common ta¯las (in 16, 12, and 14 beats respectively). The bada¯ khayal also serves as a parallel to the a¯la¯p (free-time melodic introduction) of dhrupad in that the performer has considerable rhythmic freedom. The tempo of the bada¯ khayal slowed considerably in the twentieth century, notably through performances by Ustad Amir Khan. The cı¯ z consists of two parts: stha¯’ı¯ (composed in mandra stha¯n [lower octave] and the bottom half of the madhya stha¯n [middle octave]) and the antara¯ (composed in the upper half of the madhya stha¯n and the lower half of the ta¯r stha¯n [upper octave]). The former is the more important, recurring regularly as a refrain, while the latter generally has more text content. In the bada¯ khayal, the stha¯’ı¯ and antara¯ imitate the structure of the ra¯g a¯la¯p found in other South Asian forms. In the bada¯ khayal, the singer often refers only briefly to the original cı¯ z, singing just the mukhara¯ (face) of the composition. The cı¯ z in the chota¯ khayal (Hindustani, “small” khayal ) is in fast tempo (drut lay), commonly set in Tintal, and is more plain than in bada¯ khayal. Here, the focus of the singer is on virtuosic extemporization, featuring fast melodic figures and difficult rhythmic elaborations. Khayal texts can be of a variety of types, ranging from historic poems to contemporary creations by musicians or patrons. Their subjects can be advice, religious devotion, deities (e.g., Krishna), praise of patrons, or descriptions of seasons. Love, both divine and human, is a common theme. Although the bada¯ khayal replaces the a¯la¯p of other forms in the Hindustani sangı¯ t paddhati, some similarities remain. The ru¯pak a¯la¯pti (Sanskrit, “shape” or “form” a¯la¯p) is an a¯la¯p-like section of the bada¯ khayal, sung to the preexisting shape of the cı¯ z and set metrically rather than in free time. Most of the musical attention in khayal focuses on the various kinds of tan, fast melodic figures of a virtuosic nature. These commonly include a¯ka¯r ta¯ns (Hindustani, literally “to do ‘a’ ”; elaborations in which the singer uses only the syllable “a”), gamak ta¯ns (gamak, Hindustani, “syllable”; elaborations using a heavy glottal shake), and bol ta¯ns (bol, Hindusani, “syllable”; elaborations ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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intended to expand upon the meaning of the words of the text). A number of these improvisations are common to both khayal and dhrupad. Examples include bol ba¯nt (Hindustani, “syllable distribution”; the use of the cı¯ z bols for purposes of rhythmic play [layka¯rı¯ ], such as the creation of tiha¯’ı¯ s using the text), sa¯rgam (Hindustani, sa¯-rega¯-ma¯; elaborations using the mnemonic pitch syllables sa-re-ga-ma, etc.), and nom-tom (elaborations with a rhythmic pulse created through the use of syllables like “nom,” “tom,” and “ta-ra-na”). Gordon Thompson

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Wade, Bonnie. Khaya¯l: Creativity within North India’s Classical Music Tradition. Cambridge, U.K. and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

KHILAFAT MOVEMENT. See Afghani, Jamal-uddin; Gandhi, Mahatma M. K.

KHUSRAU, AMIR (1253–1325), poet, writer, and musician. Amir Khusrau was born in Patiali, in the Brajspeaking Indo-Gangetic Plain, in 1253, the son of a central Asian, Turkic-speaking father and an Indian mother. Sometimes known as Amir Khusrau Dihlavi or Amir Khusrau-eDihlavi, Khusrau was the most important poet, writer, and musician of his age and the subject of much musical speculation. His poetry, both in Persian and Hindi, remains popular both for its imagery and as a source of musical settings. His riddles, like his poems, draw on the sound and meaning of words and continue to entertain readers. Some have credited Khusrau with the creation of specific melodies and rhythms, of instruments such as the sita¯r and the tabla, and even of genres such as qawwa¯lı¯ and khayal. Although most of these attributions are mythic, Khusrau was influential in the fusion of West Asian (particularly Persian) musical ideas with those of India. (Some confusion may exist because of the similarity of his name to that of Amir Khusrau Khan, an important eighteenth-century Delhi musician.) Khusrau was influenced by the Sufi teacher Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya for whom music was an important mode of experiencing the divine. Of the courts in which Amir Khusrau was known to have been active, that of Ala-ud-Din Muhammad Khalji, sultan of Delhi (r. 1296–1326), proved to be particularly fertile ground for cultural exchange. The Muslim rulers of late thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century Delhi attempted to raise the prestige of their courts by patronizing scholars and artists as advisers and courtiers. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Rudyard Kipling. In his lifetime, as a firm believer in British imperialism, Kipling went from being the unofficial poet laureate of Great Britain to one of the most denounced writers in modern history. As his literary reputation declined, Kipling’s work matured and by his death he had compiled one of the most diverse collections of poetry in the English language. HULTONDEUTSCH COLLECTION / CORBIS.

Probably as a consequence of his role as a courtier, Khusrau studied and described many musical theories and performance practices of his era. Gordon Thompson BIBLIOGRAPHY

Miner, Allyn. Sitar and Sarod in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Wilhelmshaven, Germany: F. Noetzel, 1993.

KHYBER PASS. See Baluchistan and the NorthWest Frontier; Geography.

KIPLING, RUDYARD (1865–1936), British poet and novelist. Joseph Rudyard Kipling was Britain’s greatest poet of the Raj. His works, including his “White Man’s Burden” (1899) and Kim (1901), sought to extol the “virtues” of racial prejudice and imperial power. Born in India, where his father, John, worked as an architectural 35

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sculptor in the Bombay School of Art, Rudyard’s first five years were carefree; but when shipped “home” to live with a mean-spirited “pious” family in Southsea, he suffered wretched “beatings and humiliations.” His mother, Alice, returned from India in 1877 to rescue him from the tyranny of pious discipline, entering her brilliant son in the United Service College, Westwood Ho. Five years later, Kipling returned to India as a reporter, hired by Lahore’s Civil and Military Gazette, for which he wrote Departmental Ditties (1886) and Plain Tales from the Hills (1888), as well as Barrack-Room Ballads (1892), which soon made his name and poetry more famous than any viceroy of India. Nor was his fame limited to India, for in 1889, Kipling traveled to Japan and to the United States, living four years in Brattleboro, Vermont, where he wrote The Light That Failed (1891) and started his two Jungle Books (1894–1895), anticipating his later Just So Stories for Little Children (1902). Kipling believed so deeply in the virtues of British imperialism that he wrote his “White Man’s Burden” to help Theodore Roosevelt persuade many doubting Americans to seize the Philippines in 1899. Take up the White Man’s burden— Send forth the best ye breed— Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives’ need. When World War I started, Kipling pushed his own sixteen-year-old son to a tragically early grave on the Western Front, pulling strings with friends at the War Office, to hustle underage John off to Loos, where he was killed after less than a month of bloody combat. Take up the White Man’s burden— The savage wars of peace— Fill full the mouth of Famine and bid the sickness cease; And when your goal is nearest The end for others sought, Watch Sloth and heathen Folly Bring all your hope to nought. For Kipling believed that it was, indeed, to “civilize” India’s darkly “benighted natives,” not to exploit and bully them, that thousands of “selfless servants” of the British Raj hefted their daily “burdens.” “And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, with the name of the late deceased,” another of Kipling’s popular poems reminded his comrades in the Great Game of shaking South India’s “Trees” bare of their golden pagodas, and milking North India’s sacred cows dry. “And the epitaph drear:/ ‘A fool lies here who tried to hustle the East.’ ” Born to India though he was, Kipling’s contempt 36

for its “natives” was imbibed with his ayah’s milk, even as Jallianwala Bagh Brigadier Dyer’s was. As Kipling put it: “East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet!” That was the theme as well of his novel The Man Who Would Be King (1899). In 1907 Kipling won the Nobel Prize for literature. He started to write his autobiography, Something of Myself, but died in London, on 18 January 1936, before it was finished. Stanley Wolpert See also British Impact BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kipling, Rudyard. The Writings in Prose and Verse of Rudyard Kipling. 12 vols. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1898. Maugham, W. Somerset. Maugham’s Choice of Kipling’s Best. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1953.

KI¯RTANA The Sanskrit word kı¯ rtana (recital, glory) refers to the praise of God. The South Indian kı¯ rtana is a simple song with a main theme or refrain (pallavi) and several stanzas (charana). Here, as in many other parts of the country, the kı¯ rtana or kı¯ rtan forms the basis for responsorial singing (bhajana). Under the guidance of an experienced singer (kı¯ rtanaka¯r), the practice of na¯ma sankı¯ rtana (singing His praises) is conducive to ecstatic experiences, as described by Tya¯gara¯ja in his piece “Intakanna¯nandame¯mi” (ra¯ga Bilahari): “Is there any bliss greater than this—to deem it sufficient to dance, to sing divine music, to pray for His presence and to be in communion with him in mind . . . to become one with Him.” (Raghavan). With reference to a tripartite concert item in a South Indian concert, the term kı¯ rtana is also used as a synonym for kriti. Wherever the anupallavi (middle section) is dispensed with, for instance in Tya¯gara¯ja’s invocations of the “divine names” of Vishnu (divyana¯ma kı¯ rtana), the term kı¯ rtana is used more appropriately. During a Karnatak concert, several kı¯ rtanas and kritis by famous as well as less-known composers are usually heard. When Tanja¯vu¯r came under Mara¯tha¯ rule (late seventeenth to early nineteenth centuries), harikatha¯, the narration of stories (katha¯) about Vishnu (hari), developed into a popular form of art and entertainment. The Gı¯ ta¯ Govinda, Jayade¯va’s celebrated Sanskrit work (twelfth century), facilitated the spread of the cult of Krishna and Ra¯dha¯ and inspired South Indian poet-musicians (va¯gge¯yaka¯ra) to explore its erotic symbolism through Telugu lyrics. While the concept of “classical” Karnatak music began to evolve, there was widespread appreciation for the vernacular lyrics of many devotional bhakti poets. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Shabad Kirtan at Nehru Park. Musicians and signers perform in a kı¯ rtana concert at a park in New Delhi, 2003. AVINASH PASRICHA.

For Tya¯gara¯ja, as for his father before him, the Ra¯ma¯yan.a epic provided ideal role models in terms of righteousness and self-control. He and other learned musicians (bha¯gavatar) refined their presentations of songs and stories for the purpose of expounding ideas derived from advaita (nondualist) philosophy, emphasizing the divine origin and destination of all human existence. Several poet-singers called for reforms and condemned social evils such as the caste system and ritualism. The timehonored literary motifs and musical techniques employed by these “saint-singers” of South India were consolidated and refined in the course of the eighteenth century, when artists from many parts of India were brought into contact with one another either through involuntary migration or in search of patronage. As the court and temple establishments of Tamil Nadu promoted scholarship and the arts throughout history, the kı¯ rtana evolved as a flexible musical form that could capture and convey the ideas and feelings of all sections of society in many different ways. In this sense, the kı¯ rtana not only absorbed some of the elements from tradition (samprada¯ya) but effectively superseded older musical forms such as the medieval prabandha. Other ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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genres—most notably the kriti, with its emphasis on musical refinement, and the ja¯vali, which is based on erotic lyrics—can therefore be traced back to the new type of kı¯ rtana of South India. Kı¯ rtanas (Tamil kı¯ rtanai) have enriched other branches of South India’s performing arts. A case in point is the art of narrating and expounding religious stories in a musical context, known as harikatha¯ ka¯lakshe¯pam. This genre is traditionally presented by learned male performers (bha¯gavatar), although at a later stage, several women became famous exponents in their own right. A close relationship among the various genres, including the dance music for bharata na¯tyam, kuchipudi, and mo¯hiniya¯ttam, and also for drama (Me¯lattu¯r bha¯gavata me¯lam), has characterized all devotional poetry and music of South India since time immemorial. As a result, numerous poetic references to other artistic and literary genres are found in the lyrics of the kı¯ rtana repertoire heard today, for instance the fast rhythmic passages (sholkattu), reminiscent of ¯ ttuka¯du dance movements, contained in the songs of U Venkata Subba Ayyar (c. 1700–1765). By way of endowing the patriotic sentiments of South India’s educated classes with a religious dimension, the 37

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customary kı¯ rtana has also contributed to the freedom struggle that led to India’s independence in 1947. Through the lyrics of patriotic poets and social reformers like Bha¯ratiyar, elements from Karnatak music found their way into popular music, and other famous musicians and composers of the twentieth century introduced elements based on the kı¯ rtana into radio, film, and television productions. The same applies to cross-cultural ventures variously described as jugalbandi (joint performances by Indian musicians) and fusion music outside India’s borders. The lyrics of several contemporary poets whose names are listed as “composers” are commonly presented during concerts without mentioning the names of the musicians who have composed the music. This is indicative of the prestige associated, even today, with the lyrics (sa¯hitya) rather than the melodic and rhythmical framework (varnamettu) of a song. The prevalence of such notions, not to mention the vast creative scope within Karnatak music, leaves many questions about the authenticity and integrity of the songs by most early composers unanswered. In the case of most “rediscoveries” of songs by composers who lived before the late nineteenth century, experienced musicians are widely believed to have demonstrated their compositional skills by providing suitable tunes and rhythms to existing lyrics. Ascribing one’s art or knowledge to a revered personality of the distant past has long been a common practice in different fields of learning in India. Ludwig Pesch See also Kriti; Music: South India

KRISHNA. See Hinduism (Dharma).

KRISHNA IN INDIAN ART The origin and history of the myth of Krishna are complex. Over a period of a thousand years or more, many strands coalesced to form a predominant, multifaceted character called Krishna. Myths and legends associated with him pervade India’s literature as well as its visual and performing arts. Concurrently, there are theological and liturgical works that interpenetrate into the aesthetic theories and artistic expressions. The Bha¯gavata Pura¯n.a consolidates the several myths into an impressive narrative, which has held the imagination of artists and devotees alike for a millennia or more. Jayadeva wrote a poem titled Gı¯ ta¯ Govinda in the twelfth century, in which he introduced the character of Ra¯dha¯, a special beloved of Krishna. There was but a faint mention of her in the Bha¯gavata Pura¯n.a. Jayadeva’s poem gave a new twist to the perennial theme of Krishna and the gopis (cowherdesses). From then on, a further coalescing of Krishna as Vishnu and of Ra¯dha¯ as Sri and Lakshmı¯ and Shakti (female energy personified) took place. Sculpture, painting, theater, music, and dance rely heavily on these principal literary sources of varying periods. In turn, theology and liturgy has been affected by them. Many theological schools evolved, known as Sampradayas; each was a distinctive cult that incorporated the verbal, visual, and kinetic arts as an integral part of Krishna worship and ritual. The kernel of the myth of the baby child, adult king, and counselor was retained, but many modifications took place in India’s regional literatures and in its visual and performing arts until the nineteenth century.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allen, Matthew Harp. “Tales Tunes Tell: Deepening the Dialogue between Classical and Non-Classical in the Music of India.” Yearbook for Traditional Music ( Journal of the International Council for Traditional Music) 30 (1998): 22–52. Raghavan, V. Muttuswami Dikshitar. Mumbai: National Centre for the Performing Arts, 1975. ———. The Great Integrators: The Saint-Singers of India. New Delhi: Publications Division, 1979. ———. “Introductory Thesis: Saint Tyagaraja.” In The Spiritual Heritage of Tyagaraja. Chennai: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1981. ———. Tya¯gara¯ja. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1983. Raghavan, V., ed. Composers. New Delhi: Publications Division, 1979. Seetha, S. Tanjore as a Seat of Music. Chennai: University of Madras, 1981.

KOLKATA. See Calcutta. 38

The Krishna Theme in Sculpture The first examples of the Krishna theme in Indian sculpture belong to the Kushan period, during the first and second centuries A.D. The thematic context of these sculptures revolves around Krishna Vasudeva, not Krishna Gopala. There are, however, a few important exceptions. A relief in the Mathura Museum depicts Vasudeva carrying baby Krishna across the Jamuna River to the village of Gokula. Besides these, other Kushan sculptures depict Krishna-Vasudeva, of the Virshni lineage, along with his kinsmen, particularly Samkarsana Balarama, his elder brother, and sister Ekanamsa. A clear change in emphasis begins with the Guptan period, fourth to sixth centuries, roughly A.D. 320–530. There are many more sculptures on the Krishna theme, especially in his aspect as Krishna Gopala of Braj. The Krishna Gopal theme becomes pervasive not only in Mathura and Rajasthan, but is equally popular in South ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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with a butter ball is popular among the Chola bronzes. Equally important and impressive are the bronzes of Krishna dancing on the serpent Kaliya, and Krishna as the flute player (Venugopala), and Krishna the dancer supreme. The South Indian bronzes, especially those of Chola, are outstanding for their artistic skill. The Krishna theme appears on the wooden chariots of practically all parts of South India. There are intricate carvings on the different parts of the chariot, including the spokes of the wheels and the frame of the chariot seat. Krishna is depicted in the metal sculpture of Nepal. Some sculptures, especially of the dancing Krishna and Krishna with flute (Venugopala), display exquisite craftsmanship. The Vishnupur temples of the eighteenth century of Bengal began to use the medium of terra-cotta. The brick and terra-cotta temples of Bengal belong to the last phase of the Indian architects’ and sculptors’ preoccupation with the Krishna theme.

The Krishna Theme in Indian Painting

Painting of Young Krishna. Krishnalila remains a favorite theme of contemporary art schools in India. Here, painting of the young Krishna in his opulent palace. Image photographed c. 1925. BETTMANN / CORBIS.

India. While the Mandor and Osian panels are important evidence from Rajasthan, no less important are the Krishna life panels from South India, particularly Badami. All these belong to the fifth to seventh century. From the tenth century onward begins another phase of medieval Indian sculpture. Several major temples were built in the north, south, west, and east. In many of them there are friezes portraying the episodes of Krishna’s early life. Sometimes they are single panels, as in the Lakshman temple in Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh. At other times there are continuous serialized depictions, as in the Hoysala period temples of Belur, Halebid, and Somanathpur in Karnataka. An elaborate visual panorama unfolds on these walls, almost like a painting scroll. While friezes of continuous narration are one methodology, there is the other of equal importance. It is largely during this period that single images of Krishna appear both in stone and in bronze. The baby Krishna ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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The inspirations provided by the Bha¯gavata Pura¯n.a gave rise also to devotional poetry in many Indian languages: Braja Bhasa in the north; Gujarati in the west; Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada in the south; and Bengali, Oriya, and Asamiya in the east. By the fifteenth century there was a vast body of poetry, which was not only the preserve of the elite or Sanskrit speaking, but was the language and literature of the high and the low, the affluent and the poor. Painting, music, dance, and theater were the visual, aural, and kinetic counterparts of this powerful and pervasive movement. Any account of the Krishna theme in Indian painting has necessarily to recognize the rise of Vaishnavism, the popular bhakti movement, and the impact of the poetry of the bhakti poet-saints. Evidence of the Krishna theme in Indian mural painting has to be traced to the magnificent large-scale depiction of the theme in South India, particularly Kerala. The Padmanabhapuram palace, the Mattancherry palace of Cochin (18th century), and the Padmanabhaswami temple (17th century) murals are striking examples of a distinctive style of painting that is analogous to the performing arts tradition of the region, particularly Kathakali. However, by the fifteenth century and more particularly the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there was a prolific popularity of miniature paintings based on the Bha¯gavata Pura¯n.a and the Gı¯ ta¯ Govinda. Later, the poetry of Suradas, Keshavadasa, Bihari, and other poets became the backdrop or springboard for their pictorial visualization of the theme. The paintings have been 39

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considered as mere illustrations of the text. However, a closer analysis reveals that the painters employed a variety of means to create their own visual text, which did not literally follow the verbal text. It is in the varied schools of Rajasthani painting that we encounter a major preoccupation with the Krishna theme. Indeed, besides portraits and a few other local legends, such as Dhola Maru, most Rajasthani painting, in all its schools and styles, revolves around Krishna. The Bha¯gavata Pura¯n.a is central, but the Gı¯ ta¯ Govinda is not far behind. A Muslim artist, Sahibdin, executed a Bha¯gavata Pura¯n.a. Housed in the Bhandarkar Institute of Pune, it is an exquisite example of the Mewari school of Rajasthani painting. He also painted over two hundred leaves of the Gı¯ ta¯ Govinda. He followed the poem canto by canto, verse by verse, and yet made his paintings as if to sing the songs of praise of Lord Krishna. The artistic excellence of these paintings is clear proof of the artist’s deep immersion in the theme and his acquaintance if not subscription to the symbolic import of the meaning of the text he was interpreting. While the Mewar school has other sets, the paintings of the schools of Bundi, Kotah, Bikaner, and Keshangarh, from the seventeenth to late eighteenth centuries, largely revolve around the Krishna theme. So far more than thirty sets of the Gı¯ ta¯ Govinda alone have been identified. There are perhaps others. Their content and stylistic analysis is beyond the scope of this article. There are other Bha¯gavata Pura¯n.a sets besides those of Mewar, including important sets from Malwa. The poet Surdas’s work Bhramar Gı¯ ta¯ is another favorite, and so is the Rasikapriya of Keshavadasa, on the love of Krishna and Radha. Two developments should be noted. First, the Bha¯gavata Pura¯n.a, especially canto 10 (Dasamaskanda), provides the basis of pictorially depicting the Krishna dance rasa. Second, the other childhood pranks or plays (lila) of the Gı¯ ta¯ Govinda place Ra¯dha¯ as a special sakhi, central to the theme. The theme of love in separation and union becomes the theme not only of the paintings illustrating the Gı¯ ta¯ Govinda but also of others that revolve around the seasons, such as Barahmasa (the 12 seasons), and the paintings that revolve around the hero-heroine typologies (Nayaka-Nayika). While the rasa symbolizes the love of the human and the divine, Ra¯dha¯ and Krishna begin to represent the yearning of the individual soul for the universal (jivatma and paramatma). This aspect is subsumed; even when explicit, these paintings appear amorous, sensuous, and profane, yet they are largely sacred and devotional in essence. The sensuous and spiritual become two levels of the same pictorial image. Finally, there is another group of paintings, which are directly related to ritual. In the sixteenth and seventeenth 40

centuries, Braj became the center of Krishna worship. This was the result of the overpowering influence of Saint Chaitanya (1485–1533), who was responsible for establishing through his followers a special type of Vaishnavism called Gaudiya Vaishnavism. Music, dance, and floor painting were integral to the ritual. All revolved around the couple Ra¯dha¯ and Krishna. Also, a Vaishnava saint called Vallabhacharya came to Braj from South India, establishing a sect called the Vallabhacharya. An important temple was built in Rajasthan, and Krishna was worshiped as Sri Nathji. Cloth curtains were hung behind the “icon.” These painted clothes, called pichchavars, were many; the costume of the icon was changed according to the seasons and the cycle of the ritual calendar. The cloth paintings were also used as hangings. More than twentyfour iconographic types developed, each with its specific color and costume of Krishna, and the accompanying episode in his life. No account of the Krishna theme in the visual arts would be complete without at least passing reference to the many folk forms of paintings still extant and flourishing in different parts of India. Among these are the Paithani paintings, so popular in Maharashtra and Karnataka. These paintings were used by itinerant bards who were reciters and singers of the epics. This style of painting is akin to the shadow puppets of the region. Profiles and extended eyes are prominent. The scenes of the epic battle of Kurukshetra, with Krishna as Arjuna’s charioteer, are popular. The preoccupation of these painters was not with the Krishna of Braj; it was instead with the counselor of the Pandvas. In Bihar, in the region called Mithila, women used to paint the mud walls of their homes, both outside and inside, on auspicious occasions. The depiction of Krishna and Ra¯dha¯ in the inner chambers of young newlyweds was considered auspicious. Concurrently, with the evolution of Kalighat paintings in Bengal, there was an equally significant movement in South India, spearheaded by the painter Raja Ravi Varma. Raja Ravi Varma’s style of painting is deeply indebted to European naturalism. Indeed, it was this image of Krishna that became popular, largely through the oleographs that adorn the walls of domestic shrines in many Indian homes. The myths and legends of Krishna have permeated contemporary Indian art in many ways. One modern Indian artist, Anjalie Ela Menon, captures the image of the child Krishna. Her medium, however, is modern: the Moreno glass of Italy. Of course, there is the extensive and popular world of Indian films, in which Krishna regularly appears. The Krishna theme, as is obvious from even this brief and general survey, has for over two thousand years ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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captured and enraptured the Indian psyche. Behind the phenomenon of a staggering diversity and distinctive regional, local, or individual and changing style, there is an unmistaken unity of vision and dependence upon the literary sources, in most if not all parts of India. The perennial and the ephemeral, the ancient, medieval, and modern move as if in tandem, not conflicting or negating, but building upon the received and given. The scope of improvization and variation within an ambit is vast. Perhaps this is the enigma of the Krishna theme, which has held the imagination of the ancient and continues to engage the contemporary and modern.

The Krishna Theme in the Performing Arts As in the case of Indian miniature painting, the theater, music, and dance revolving around Krishna was a medieval phenomenon. Many forms that evolved were coeval with the evolution and development of the varied schools of Indian painting. The variety of the performance genres was as rich and extensive as the styles of Indian painting. Krishna theater forms and specific genres of music and dance are known to practically all parts of India. Each is distinctive in style and technique, yet there is an underlying unity of vision and purpose. A brief account of some will be given here, though not all genres of theater are still extant in India. Important among these is the genre of theatrical performance known by the generic name rasa lila (the “play of rasa”). It is performed during specific seasons for particular occasions in the Braj area. From references in the literature, it is possible to say that the rasa lila performance in the precincts of the temple was well established by the time of Akbar. It has a complex history of development, and there are varying views among scholars. It may be more pertinent to restrict this account to a brief description of the contemporary performance of rasa lila. The contemporary rasa lila of Vrindavana is the special domain of the svamis and the gosvamis (priests) who trace their family history back many generations, in most cases to the sixteenth century. The special organization of the contemporary performers of the rasa lila is popularly called the rasadhari mandalis. In all cases, the rasa lila demands a special stage. It is normally a circular platform of stone or concrete, 3 feet (.9 m) high. The symbolic significance of the circular stage is clear, for it recalls the descriptions of the rasa mandala (the round arena of the rasa) in the Shrimad Bha¯gavata. On one end of the stage is a dais or platform called rangamancha (the stage of the dance) or a raised throne called the simhasana. All the scenes in which Ra¯dha¯ and Krishna appear in their deified forms, and to which they return at the end, are performed on the raised back stage; other scenes suggesting the passage of time or change of location are performed on the lower ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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stage. The performance is divided into two clear-cut portions: the rasa and the presentation of the lilas. Throughout the performance, the objective is to emphasize the symbolism or the dual level on which the theatrical spectacle moves. The rasa is performed exclusively by child actors, as suggestive of happenings elsewhere, and at no point is there a realistic presentation of the theme. The nature of stylization and the techniques used are very different from those in epic dramatic forms, which revolve around the Maha¯bha¯rata theme. In the lilas, it is truly a play, a vision or glimpse with a mystical significance. A dreamlike lyrical form, swiftness of movement, and lightness of touch are characteristic. The end of the rasa is the beginning of the lilas. There are enactments of the early life of Krishna that has been mentioned in the context of painting. Many literary sources are employed, which include the Bha¯gavata Pura¯n.a as well as the poetry of the ashtachhapa school (eight poets of Braj of the 17th century). Night after night the life of Krishna as child, adolescent, and youth is re-created sequentially. Each night a new theme is presented. Popular among these is the famous Govardhana lila, in which Krishna lifts Mount Govardhana on his little finger, and the chiraharan, in which Krishna steals the clothes of the gopis. Unlike the rasa, the lilas are presented more realistically, with actual earthen pots being broken and milk and butter strewn across the stage. It was this rasa lila of Vrindavana that traveled to distant Manipur and Assam in the easternmost regions of India. It reached Assam without the character of Ra¯dha¯ but in Manipur she was included. Vaishnavism entered the valley only in the sixteenth century, with Rangba (in A.D. 1568) the first king to be initiated. He was followed by Garib Nivas, who was the principal ruler instrumental in converting the valley inhabitants into Vaishnava bhaktas. The origin of the famous rasa dances is attributed to Rajarshi Bhagya Chandra Maharaj (1763–1798), who, along with Chandra Kirti (1850–1886), laid the foundations of classical Manipuri dance. Among the most beautiful lyrical manifestations of this transformation of an earlier layer of Manipuri culture to Vaishnava culture is the rasa lila. Today it is easily the most highly intricate and refined form of dancedrama. The message of Chaitanya was taken to Manipur by a disciple, who introduced the tradition of community singing and dancing. In the fields and open spaces of Manipur, one can still regularly participate in dances that extol the name of Lord Krishna. There are several types of rasa lila in Manipur. The Basantrasa (spring rasa) is performed at full moon in March, and the focus of the story is the union of Ra¯dha¯ 41

KRISHNAMURTI, JIDDU

and Krishna after a painful separation. The Kunjrasa is lighter in spirit and is performed during the early autumn festival of Dussehra. It represents the daily life of Ra¯dha¯ and Krishna, who are portrayed as ideal lovers, amusing themselves and revelling in a relationship unmarred by separation. The Maharasa is performed on a full moon in November–December and depicts the separation of the divine lovers. The Vishnu and the Bha¯gavata Pura¯n.a also traveled to Assam. In the course of time, through the genius of one man, Shankaradeva, a whole genre of theater was created around the Krishna theme. A poetic language called Braja boli was the vehicle of communication; the tool of their missionary zeal was a theatrical form, today called the bhaona or ankia nata. It continues to be performed in the monasteries of Assam, called sattras. Among the many important forms of dance and drama in South India, there are two widely known forms called Kathakali and Krishnattam. While it is impossible to elaborate on the history of these important forms, it should be pointed out that Krishnattam also emerged in Kerala as a result of the influence of the Bha¯gavata and the Gı¯ ta¯ Govinda. The two works transformed the earlier Shaivite traditions into Vaishnava theater. King Manavedan, who reigned in Kerala from 1655 to 1658, was a renowned poet and the author of a work titled Krishnagiti. He was also a great patron of the famous Guruvayur temple, which is today the most important center of the Krishna faith in the South. His work, the Krishnagiti, was deeply influenced by the Gı¯ ta¯ Govinda, but is significantly different. Today it is performed in an eight-day serialized enactment in the precincts of the Guruvayur temple, by an all-male cast. Except in the performance of the rasa krida on the third night of the cycle of plays, little else is lyrical or romantic. The episodes are played throughout the night, and by morning the spectators are moved to an elated state of wonder and devotion. This dance-drama is confined to the precincts of the temple. Kathakali, the related dance-drama of Kerala, moves into the open spaces. It is the same world of gods and demons, heroes and villains, but now the life of Krishna is based on the episodes from the epics, especially the Maha¯bha¯rata and the Ra¯ma¯yan.a. The libretto is in Sanskrit or in Malayalam. It is sung and narrated; the dance is highly stylized, with a fully developed language of hand and facial gestures. Krishna appears in two roles, as the young brother of Balarama and as the warrior hero. The poetry of the medieval poet-aints—whether of the south, north, east, or west, written in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, or Oriya as the base—has inspired great dancers in the solo classical dance forms recognized as Bharatanatyam, Odissi, and Kathak. The poetic line is set 42

to a melody (ra¯ga) and metrical cycle (tala). The verbal imagery is then interpreted through the movements and gestures and mime in endless permutations and combinations, depending upon the creative genius of the performer. Great dancers have kept large audiences spellbound by the presentation of a single verse or line. The dancer’s ability to improvize and present variations is the test of both artistic skill and devotional and spiritual involvement. Other lyrics revolving around the child Krishna have inspired dancers to present memorable performances. The episode of the child Krishna eating mud and being reprimanded by Yashoda has been danced by one of India’s greatest dancers, T. Ba¯lasarasvati, who performed the piece for over four decades. Each time the cosmos was re-created through her mime, and the audience was transported to a mystical state, oblivious of time. Other great dancers have chosen verses from the Gı¯ ta¯ Govinda, Surdas, Vidyapati, or the A¯ lva¯rs, and have transformed the stage into the universal Vrindavana of Krishna. The sacred and the profane, the romantic and the mystical, the poetic and the pictorial, the aural and the visual, the movement and the stillness of love in separation and in union, all come together in these performances of Krishna, the blue God, and Ra¯dha¯, the yellow heroine. The earth and the sky unite, the clouds pour rain through the sound of music, ankle bells, and speaking hands to re-create the vision of the blue God, eternal and ever new. Kapila Vatsyayan See also Bhakti; Dance Forms: Kathakali; Miniatures: Bundi; Miniatures: Kotah; Miniatures: Marwar and Thikanas BIBLIOGRAPHY

Banerjee, Priyatosh. The Life of Krishna in Indian Art. New Delhi: Patiala House, 1978.

KRISHNAMURTI, JIDDU (1895–1986), spiritual figure and author. Admired by millions throughout the world for his philosophic wisdom, Jiddu Krishnamurti was hailed by India’s Theosophical Society president, Annie Besant, as a “world master” and new “Messiah.” Born in Madras (Chennai), Jiddu and his younger brother, Nityananda, were introduced by Charles Leadbeater to Besant at their Theosophical Society’s headquarters in Adyar. She agreed that young Jiddu’s “aura” was “divine” and sponsored his education and global travel, taking him with her first to London, and later to California, where she had a lovely home (Arya Vihara) built for him on the grounds of Theosophy’s West Coast headquarters in Ojai’s “Happy Valley.” Jiddu returned to Ojai annually for most his life, but his frail brother died there in 1922, just a few years after they first arrived. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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KRITI

Krishnamurti was worshiped as Master of the Order of the Star of the East, founded by Besant a year after his initiation, “At the Feet of the Master,” in 1911. The Order of the Star enrolled over 50,000 Theosophists, many of whom gathered annually at Adyar to hear their Master speak, believing him “divine,” until 1929, when he shocked his followers by announcing “I am not the Messiah.” Some disciples, refusing to accept him as a fellow mortal, considered his denial proof positive of his soul’s “divine” character. From 1910 until his last year of life, Krishnamurti wrote and published over fifty books, mostly philosophical dialogues, recording views and ideas that emerged during his popular evening “talks,” which were often filled with longer intervals of silence than speech. All of his books have been reprinted by the press of the Theosophical Society in Ojai, which keeps his writings and lectures in its fine library, and in print, with tens of millions of copies sold and still read the world over. Most of Krishnamurti’s works are dialogues, much like the ancient Upanishadic Vedanta texts that predate the common era, embodying the wisdom of Hindu sages’ philosophic responses to questions posed by disciples seeking enlightenment. His answers were often pithy and paradoxical: “To know is to be ignorant, not to know is the beginning of wisdom.” Or “Nobody can put you psychologically into prison. You are already there.” And “It is truth that frees, not your effort to be free.” Laughter, love, and silence were vital aspects of his philosophy. Shortly before his death he said: “If you don’t know how to laugh and love . . . you’re not quite a human being.” Krishnamurti was one of India’s greatest modern sages. Stanley Wolpert See also Theosophical Society

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Blau, Evelyne. Krishnamurti: 100 Years. New York: Stewart, Tabori, and Chang, 1995. Krishnamurti, J. The Awakening of Intelligence. New York: Harper & Row, 1973. ———. Krishnamurti’s Notebook. New York: Harper & Row, 1976. ———. The Collected Works of J. Krishnamurti. 17 vols. 1933–1967. Reprint, Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall-Hunt, 1991.

KRITI In South Indian or Karnatak music (Karnataka sangı¯ tam), the Sanskrit term kriti (work or composition) refers to a tripartite song with Sanskrit or vernacular lyrics. As most solo performers acquire their repertoire of kritis from a guru belonging to a lineage of several teachers and ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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disciples (guru shishya parampara), associating oneself with a well-established tradition (samprada¯ya) or personal style (ba¯ni) remains a matter of prestige.

History The term kriti is widely regarded as being synonymous with kı¯ rtana, although some scholars make a distinction and reserve kriti for the more differentiated form of art music. Any simple devotional song is referred to as kı¯ rtana, pada, or de¯varna¯ma. The sparing use of text in a kriti has resulted in a melismatic and expressive style. Many scholars believe that Tya¯gara¯ja (1767–1847) was the composer who perfected the kriti form. In the early twentieth century, the kriti became the main Karnatak concert item, as it provides all participants with ample scope for solo improvisations and spontaneous interaction. Until then, the creative aspect of art music (mano¯dharma sangı¯ ta) consisted mainly of formal and highly complicated elaborations of a single theme ( pallavi or ra¯gam ta¯nam pallavi). With its mellifluous quality, Telugu continues to be the favorite Dravidian language for kriti lyrics. Tamil, the medium of the earliest bhakti poetry, has played a greater role since the Tamil music movement (Tamil Ishai) was institutionalized in the 1940s.

Structure A kriti consists of three main themes: (1) an opening theme or refrain (pallavi, P, “sprouting”); (2) a secondary theme building on the pallavi (anupallavi, A); and (3) the concluding stanza, or several stanzas (charanam, C, “foot”). The typical arrangement of these kriti parts (anga) can be summarized as P-A-P-C-(A)-P. Any section may comprise several lines and repetitions. The three themes are often enriched with complex variations (sangati), either as intended by the composer or in the form of additions made by other musicians. Both the profusion and refinement of sangatis are regarded as the hallmark of Tya¯gara¯ja’s kritis. For his short kritis, Dı¯ kshitar employed a different format known as samashti charana, in which the anupallavi is omitted, much as in a kı¯ rtana. Some of the kritis of Shya¯ma Sha¯stri and Dı¯ kshitar, and also those of several later composers, are characterized by the use of meaningless sol-fa syllables (chittasvara), each syllable representing the name of a note (svara). A less common but important variant is known as svara sa¯hitya, in which a composer amalgamates meaningless sol-fa syllables (svara) with meaningful syllables as part of the lyrics (sa¯hitya), usually as an extension of the charanam. Tya¯gara¯ja did not normally employ such techniques, the 43

K S H A T R I YA S

notable exceptions being found in the kritis popularly known as the five gems ( pancharatna). Thus all the chittasvaras performed along with his pieces constitute additions made by others. More than any other genre, the kriti facilitates the exploration of melodic and rhythmical intricacies. This important quality manifests itself in two ways, namely in the variations (sangati) provided by a composer, and in the optional solo improvisations (preludes and interludes) by concert musicians. A nonmetrical ra¯ga exposition (ra¯ga a¯la¯pana) creates the appropriate mood (ra¯ga bha¯va) for a kriti in a manner that can be compared to the first part of a ra¯gam ta¯nam pallavi performance. Sometimes the kriti that is presented as the highlight of a concert includes a ta¯nam (a pulsating variant of the ra¯ga a¯la¯pana); then three more improvised sections are typically inserted in the anupallavi or charanam section before returning to the pallavi of the kriti: (1) niraval (filling up), which initially follows the distribution of the text syllables in order to heighten a particular mood; (2) several rounds of kalpana svara (decorative notes); and (3) tani a¯vartana, an extensive drum solo that concludes the main concert item. To establish their identity and discourage others from altering their songs, most kriti composers incorporate a seal (mudra¯) toward the end of their lyrics, be it a pen name, their personal name, or that of their chosen deity (ishtade¯vata¯).

Themes A kriti leads its listeners through a series of experiences that appeal to their artistic sensibilites as well as their innermost spiritual longings. In the kritis composed by Tya¯gara¯ja, Shya¯ma Sha¯stri, Muttusva¯mi Dı¯ kshitar, and many of their successors, the aim of art music has been transformed radically: they refused to entertain or eulogize a powerful patron (narastuti), traditionally a highly cultured person belonging to a royal dynasty, often credited with divine qualities. Instead they focused on songs that praise their personal deity (ishta de¯vata¯), for instance Srı¯ Ra¯ma, the divine king whose glory is described in most of Tya¯gara¯ja’s songs. Far from feeling intimidated by the grandeur he describes in such detail, Tya¯gara¯ja

44

even feels entitled to converse with God in rather familiar if not jocular terms, depending on the context of a song and his own disposition: “In Brovabha¯rama¯, he asks if he is too much of a burden for Rama to bear and points out the huge burdens that the Lord had borne in the past, the mountain of Mandara and Govardhana on his back and palm, and the entire universe in his stomach” (Raghavan). In several songs, the saintly composer skillfully resorts to mocking praise (ninda¯stuti) and social satire with the help of succinct lyrics whose expression required a corresponding range of musical means. The Telugu is lyrical and minimal, possessing classical dignity and meaning. Ludwig Pesch See also Kı¯ rtana; Music: South India; Ra¯ga

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jackson, William J. Tya¯gara¯ja: Life and Lyrics. Chennai: Oxford University Press, 1991. ———. “Features of the Kriti: A Song Form Developed by Tya¯gara¯ja.” Asian Music 24, no. 1 (1992): 19–61. ———. Songs of the Three Great South Indian Saints. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998. Parthasarathy, T. S. Music Composers of India. Chennai: C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation, 1982. Raghavan. V. The Spiritual Heritage of Tyagaraja. Chennai: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1981. Seetha, S. Tanjore as a Seat of Music. Chennai: University of Madras, 1981.

KSHATRIYAS. See Caste System.

KUCHIPUDI. See Dance Forms.

KURUKSHETRA. See Maha¯bhara¯ta.

KURUS. See Vedic Aryan India.

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LADAKH. See Jammu and Kashmir.

l

LAKSHMI¯. See Devı¯.

LAND TENURE FROM 1800 TO 1947 The pattern of land tenure in India at the beginning of the nineteenth century was far from egalitarian. A substantial portion of India’s agrarian population comprised a class of agricultural laborers who neither owned arable land nor held any customary rights to occupy and cultivate it. In South India, about 20 percent of the agricultural population, mainly Dalits and other low caste members, were employed by landowners to cultivate their land. In Bengal, also, there is considerable evidence that during early British rule, a system of agricultural labor prevailed. Landless agricultural laborers were reported to form about 20 percent of the agricultural population in Dinajpur in 1808, although the rate of the landless population was likely to be lower in some other regions, especially in eastern Bengal, where the majority of villagers were peasants cultivating their lands. In western India, while agricultural laborers were few in the Deccan, there was nevertheless a system of hereditary farm servants in some districts of Gujarat. Those who either owned land or had customary rights to cultivate it were not homogeneous in the early decades of the nineteenth century. In the Tamil district of South India, a handful of village elites called mirasidars, very often belonging to Brahman and other high castes, asserted their rights of ownership over the land of the entire village and controlled village affairs. Under them was a group of farmers who either held permanent rights to cultivate village land or were temporary tenants ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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belonging to other villages. Under the ryotwari settlement system, the government recognized mirasidars as the sole proprietors of land, dismissing tenants’ rights completely. Only in villages where no mirasidar system existed were those villagers holding permanent occupancy rights recognized as landholders responsible for the payment of land revenue. In Bengal, under the zamindari settlement, zamindars who had ruled a wide area covering a large number of villages were recognized as the proprietors of land, collecting rents from farmers (ryots), paying only a small fraction of those revenues to the government. In some regions, like Dinajpur, in addition to a group of small peasants who cultivated their land mainly with family labor, there was a class of rich ryots who held many acres of land, which they leased to sharecroppers. In North Indian districts, where a system of joint holding of village lands called bhaichara tenure was prevalent, shares of the holdings were unequally distributed, even by the 1820s. Even though the aggregate result of changes in the size of landholdings appears negligible, the composition of each landholding-size group seems to have changed over time, hinting at transformations in village agrarian structure at least in some regions of India. In South India, some merchants, moneylenders, and other nonagricultural interests expanded their landed property and grew to be large landlords, who let their lands to tenants, whereas the previous large landholders of Brahman and other high caste origins gradually moved to urban areas and decreased their holdings in rural areas. The aggregate result of these mixed changes was that there was no substantial expansion of large landholdings. At the other end of the landholding scale, migration to overseas plantations provided landless agricultural laborers with a chance to emancipate themselves, and some among them acquired tiny pieces of land, whereas a new group of agricultural 45

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laborers appeared as a result of the dispossession of the landholdings of small peasants. A similar change in the composition of agricultural laborers has been reported for Bengal. A reduction in the number of landless laborers as a result of their migration to cities was witnessed in British Gujarat between 1911 and 1931. For the eastern part of Bengal, the occupancy ryots seem to have disintegrated into village landlords and sharecroppers with no occupancy rights. Taking into account these different trends in landholding, sometimes counteracting one another, the process of the differentiation of landholding peasants may not be ruled out, and it may have been actually witnessed, at least in some regions. Another change noticed in some areas of India was a decline in communal land tenure. In some regions, landholders collectively held village land, each owner holding only a share at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Such collective landholding was divided among shareholders over the next several decades. While the direct cause for this division was the government policy to settle land revenue on the individual holder for each plot of land, a gradual loosening of unity among landholders also contributed to this end. Various factors contributed to these changes in land tenure. The impact of the commercialization of agriculture on the peasant classes was complex. It sometimes strengthened small peasants by providing a higher income, but often the growing fluctuation in prices led them to disintegrate into a group of richer peasants, who benefited from the fluctuation, and others who came under the grip of moneylenders and merchants. In general, it contributed to the expansion of landed property by the nonagricultural population, though the extent of such transfer differed by region. The trend among highcaste landowners to move to urban areas resulted in reducing their landownership, whereas the migration of laborers provided them with opportunities to purchase small pieces of land.

Jajmani System In the 1930s, Willam H. Wiser found a system of hereditary obligations of payment and of occupational and ceremonial duties between two or more specific families of different castes in the same locality. Each member of the village service castes had his own client families to whom he was entitled and responsible to serve and who, for his service, gave some stipulated amount of remuneration. He called this dyadic type of relationship the jajmani system. The dominant view presupposed that the system was rather dominant before the nineteenth century but was gradually declining in the twentieth century. 46

Peter Mayer, however, questioned the presupposition and argued that the jajmani system is of recent origin and is essentially a feature of the Gangatic Plain. According to him, the system that prevailed widely in North India, at least until the second half of the nineteenth century, was one in which the artisans and others, like Chamars, had general obligations of service to the entire class of village landholders and were compensated for these services by all cultivators, either directly by payment at harvest time or indirectly through grants of village land. Evidence from western India of the pre-colonial period provides an interesting case, indicating a mixture of collective and individual remunerations to service providers. Washermen served an entire village body and were rewarded for their services by the village as a whole. At the same time, they could get perquisites from individual peasants when they provided a specific service to them, indicating that there existed a dyadic and individual relationship between each service provider and each peasant, operating within the framework of the holistic system of dividing labor in a village. An 1811 report from South India describes a case in which the share of harvested grain to which servants of landholders were entitled was insufficient for their subsistence, so they were to receive further payments in grain by their masters until the total reached a stipulated amount. This also seems to indicate the existence of a dyadic relationship together with a collective form of remuneration. Even if it would be an exaggeration to deny the existence of an individual and dyadic relationship between service providers and other villagers, there is no doubt that a holistic system of dividing labor predominated in pre-colonial India. The loosening of the village community in the nineteenth century surely weakened such a holistic system. The colonial land policy was generally to deny the collective landholding system that had prevailed in some regions of India, and it was reluctant to recognize revenue-free land having been granted to members of service castes, though the policies differed by region. As the result of the decline of the holistic remuneration system, the jajmani system gradually came to be the dominant form of remuneration in the course of time. Haruka Yanagisawa See also Agricultural Wages, Labor, and Employment since 1757

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bose, Sugata. Agrarian Bengal: Economy, Social Structure and Politics, 1919–1947. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1986. Guha, Sumit. “Agrarian Bengal, 1850–1947: Issues and Problems.” Studies in History 11, no. 1 (1995): 119–142. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Kotani, Hiroyuki. Western India in Historical Transition: Seventeenth to Early Twentieth Centuries. New Delhi: Manohar, 2002. Kumar, Dharma, ed. The Cambridge Economic History of India, vol. 2: c. 1757–c. 1970. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1983. Mayer, Peter. “Inventing Village Tradition: The Late Nineteenth Century Origins of the North Indian ‘Jajmani System.’ ” Modern Asian Studies 27, no. 2 (1993): 357–395. Nakazato, Nariaki. Agrarian System in Eastern Bengal, c. 1870–1910. Kolkata: K. P. Bagchi, 1994. Ray, Rajat, and Ratna Ray. “The Dynamics of Continuity in Rural Bengal under the British Imperium: A Study of Quasi-Stable Equilibrium in Underdeveloped Societies in a Changing World.” Indian Economic and Social History Review 10, no. 2 (June 1973): 103–128. Yanagisawa, Haruka. A Century of Change: Caste and Irrigated Lands in Tamilnadu, 1860s–1970s. New Delhi: Manohar, 1996.

LAND TENURE SINCE 1950 British rule established in India a system of intermediaries—called “landlords” by the British—who were to collect rent from the cultivators on behalf of the state and who would in turn receive a share of the revenue collected. Those intermediaries had largely controlled the land tenure system during India’s pre-independence period, though the role of intermediaries varied across the country. The land tenure system of pre-independence India was broadly divided into three categories: the zamindari system, the mahalwari system, and the ryotwari system. In the first two categories, the intermediaries—zamindars and village headmen, respectively—were responsible for the collection of rent from the cultivators; in the third category, there were no intermediaries, and cultivators paid the rent directly to the state. The control of intermediaries over land ownership and the tenure system led to exploitation of cultivators. In order to eliminate intermediaries and to pass on ownership rights to the actual cultivators, the process of land reforms was initiated after independence. The objective of land reforms was to abolish intermediaries and to bring changes in the revenue system that would be favorable to cultivators. Tenancy reforms were considered the most important component of land reforms, and many changes were effected in India’s land tenure and revenue system. Legislation of Land Tenure First Five-Year Plan. Efforts to abolish the landlord system were actually enacted in the early 1950s with the Zamindari Abolition Act. India’s Planning Commission introduced its national policy on tenancy regulation in its Five-Year Plans. The first proposition of the National Policy on tenancy reforms, as presented in the First Plan, recommended that large landowners be allowed to evict ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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their tenants and to bring under personal cultivation land up to a ceiling limit to be prescribed by each state. It was further suggested that tenants of nonresumable land be given occupancy rights on payment of a price to be fixed as a multiple of the rental value of the land. The term “personal cultivation” was defined as cultivation by the owner or by other members of the family. Though precise definitions were not provided for small and middle owner-cultivators, a distinction was made to consider “owners of land not exceeding a family holding as small owners.” Land belonging to small and middle owners was divided into two categories: land under personal cultivation, and land leased to tenants at will. However, limited protection was envisaged for such tenants of landowners possessing land below the ceiling restriction. It was suggested that tenancy should be for five to ten years and should be renewable, and that the maximum rent payable should not exceed 20 to 25 percent of the gross produce.

Second Five-Year Plan. To provide effective protection for tenants and to bring a degree of uniformity across the states, the definition of “personal cultivation” was amended with three elements: risk of cultivation, personal supervision, and personal labor. It was suggested that the produce rent should be converted into cash rent and the maximum rent should be fixed as a multiple of land revenue. The Second Plan also suggested that tenants of nonresumable areas should be enabled to acquire ownership rights on purchase at a reasonable price. Further, the payment should be allowed in installments that might be fixed in such a way that the burden on the tenant did not exceed 20 to 25 percent of the gross produce.

Third and Fourth Five-Year Plans. Based on a review of the steps taken in the First and Second Plan periods, the Third Plan stated that the impact of tenancy legislation on the welfare of tenants had been less than expected. Hence, the Third Plan reiterated that the final goal should be to confer rights of ownership to as many tenants as possible. Though it was considered appropriate to confer the rights of ownership to tenants of nonresumable land of small holders, the Third Plan did not make any recommendation in this direction, but suggested that the states should study the problem and determine the suitable action in light of prevailing conditions. However, the condition of tenants did not improve, and remained precarious even after the Third Plan period. With a view to ensuring the security of tenure to tenants and subtenants, the Fourth Plan recommended measures such as “to declare all tenancies non-resumable and permanent except in the case of landowners working in defence services or with any disability.” In the exceptional cases, the tenancy should be for a period of three years and subjected to renewal. Provisions were made for 47

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complete security of tenure in homestead lands where cultivators, agricultural laborers, and artisans had constructed their houses.

Fifth Five-Year Plan. The Fifth Plan contained the recommendations of a special task force for appraising the progress of problems of land reforms. Subsequently, the National Commission on Agriculture (NCA) in its report gave the following recommendations: • In view of the prevailing land-man ratio, tenancy could not be banned completely until a large-scale transfer of the population from agricultural to nonagricultural sectors occurred. • The NCA reiterated the provision of ownership rights for all tenants of land except the landowner of marginal holding and special cases. It further recommended that the price should be lower than the market price and the tenant should be provided with credit either by the state government or by financial institutions. • The sharecroppers should also be recognized and recorded as tenants and should be bestowed with all due protection.

Sixth Five-Year Plan and After. Until the Sixth Plan period, many regulations were passed, but their implementation appeared lacking. In order to fulfill this goal, the Sixth Plan emphasized measures to ensure the effective implementation of the accepted policies. A timebound schedule was given to the states to implement the measures of land reforms. It further recommended that the states in which legislative provisions for conferment of ownership rights on all tenants did not exist should immediately introduce appropriate legislative measures within one year (by 1981–1982). Even in the Seventh Plan period, the recommendation for appropriation of legislative measures by the states to secure the rights of tenants remained the major issue. Thus, the major legislations on land tenure were created in the first three Plans, and their implementation was given priority in the subsequent period.

Progress in the Implementation of Tenancy and Revenue Reforms Progress of land reforms can be assessed in terms of three important aspects: regulation of rent, security of tenure, and conferment of ownership rights to tenants.

Regulation of rent. The rent paid by the tenants during the pre-independence period was exorbitant; it varied between 35 and 75 percent of gross produce throughout India. With the enactment of legislation for regulating the rent payable by the cultivators in the early 1950s, fair rent was fixed at 20 to 25 percent of the gross produce level in all the states except Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and 48

Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, and the Andhra area of Andhra Pradesh. In these states, the rent payable by the tenants varied between 25 percent and 40 percent, depending on the available irrigation facilities. However, the effectiveness of fair rent was observed only for tenants who actually enjoyed security of tenure. As per the 1981 census, about 80 percent of the tenants were insecure. As a result, the majority of tenants could not derive benefit from the legislation on fair rent. Further, field studies conducted in Bihar, Orissa, and West Bengal during 1971 and 1972 indicated that though the Tenancy Act in these states fixed the maximum rent payable at 25 percent, most of the tenants, particularly sharecroppers, were paying 50 percent of gross produce. On the other hand, the mode of payment was flexible, either by cash or kind or both, depending on the option of the tenant, in almost all states except in West Bengal and the Bombay area of Maharashtra. In the case of West Bengal only kind payment was allowed, while in the Bombay area only cash payment was allowed.

Security of tenure. Providing security of tenure was the second important legislation brought about during the first three Five-Year Plans. Legislation for security of tenure had three essential elements: ejection could not take place except in accordance with the provision of the law; land could be resumed by an owner, but only for personal cultivation; and in the event of resumption, the tenant was assured of a prescribed minimum area. Tenancy laws were enacted in all states in accordance with the guidelines under this legislation, though their implementation varied widely across the states. Depending on the pattern of tenancy laws enacted, all the states can be broadly grouped into four categories: restricted leasing out to certain special and disabled categories (Andha Pradesh–Telenaga Area, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh); no restrictions on leasing out (Andhra Pradesh–Andhra Area, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal); leasing permitted but the tenant acquires rights to purchase land (Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra, and Punjab); and prohibition of lease (Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, and Manipur). The NSS (National Sample Survey) reports suggested that despite the tenancy laws, concealed tenancy existed in almost all the states. Further, in the majority of states, sharecroppers were not explicitly recognized as tenants and thus were not protected under tenancy law. However, sharecroppers in West Bengal were provided with heritable rights on the leased land through Operation Bargha in 1971. The term “tenant” was reported to be wide enough to cover sharecroppers but not wide enough to provide tenancy security in the majority of states. In some states, like Punjab and Haryana, sharecroppers were recognized as hired laborers as ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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defined under personal cultivation. Further, a recent study (Haque) on tenant reforms indicated that even after four decades of initiation of tenure reforms, secured tenancy exists only in the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal, and the flaws in the definition of personal cultivation have rendered tenancies insecure in all other states. In addition, security of tenure had also faced serious problems from the “voluntary surrender.” Taking advantage of this clause, powerful landlords compelled their tenants to give up the tenancies on their own and thus evaded the tenancy laws. An important deficiency identified in this regard has been lack of proper land records in a majority of states. Security of tenancy can be ensured only when there are reliable and accurate records on tenancy.

Conferment of ownership rights to tenants. The third important component of tenancy legislation was the conferment of ownership rights to tenants. Despite repeated emphasis in the plan documents, only a few states, like West Bengal and Kerala, have passed legislation to confer rights of ownership to tenants. No estimate is available at a nationwide level, but some state-level evaluation studies have estimated the number of tenants and the extent of land entitled for conferment of ownership rights. A committee set up by the government of Maharashtra in 1968 for the evaluation of land reforms reported that only 375,000 of a total of 2,600,000 entitled tenants acquired ownership rights until the mid-1960s. The number was reported to have reached 1,118,000 during the 1980s. In the case of West Bengal, the inception of Operation Bargha in 1977 led to conferment of ownership rights to 1,500,000 sharecroppers covering about 2,700,000 acres (about 1,100,000 hectares) up to December 1998. In Karnataka, about 489,000 tenants have been conferred rights for nearly 4,500,000 acres (1,850,000 hectares) of land up to 31 July 2000. Further, in Gujarat, about 462,000 tenants were benefited from 2,400,000 acres (970,000 hectares) of land, and in Rajasthan, 199,000 tenants were benefited from 940,000 acres (382,000 hectares).

The Impact of Tenancy and Revenue Reforms Agricultural productivity and growth. As the implementation of tenancy reforms coincided with a technological revolution, isolation of the specific impact of tenancy reforms on agricultural productivity and agricultural growth became a difficult task, particularly after the 1970s. However, some studies attempted to separate all the other effects and concluded that there was correlation between the growth in production and the progress of tenancy (Banerjee and Ghatak). Studies also indicated that it was the consolidation of management around tube well command areas that triggered the growth in ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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West Bengal agriculture (Webster). It was also reported that Operation Bargha in West Bengal had led to changes such as greater social equity and self-confidence among the poor (Gazdar and Sengupta). Contrary to this, there were also arguments that Operation Bargha had not been successful in augmenting production and productivity on the sharecropped land due to the poor resource base (Pal). On the other hand, Haque opined that Operation Bargha and other land reform measures might not be solely responsible for rapid growth in agriculture in West Bengal but had led to indirect effects in the form of a changing rural power structure, accessibility to irrigation, and modern inputs.

Size of the farm. Apart from agricultural productivity, major changes in the pattern of owned and operated holdings, as per the latest agricultural census (1995–96) and NSS rounds, indicated that the proportion of landless agricultural households in the rural area had stabilized at around 11 to 12 percent. About 80 percent of the cultivators were reported as marginal (less than 2.5 acres, or 1 hectare) and small (2.5–5 acres, or 1–2 hectares), and their land holdings accounted for 36 percent of the total cultivated area in 1995–1996. Nearly 18 percent of cultivators owned semi-medium (5–10 acres, or 2–4 hectares) and medium (10–25 acres, or 4–10 hectares) holdings, which accounted for 49 percent of the total cultivated area in 1995–1996. However, the number and the area under large holdings (25 acres, or 10 hectares, and above) have been declining consistently. The steady increase in the area under the marginal and small holdings group could be attributed to the legislative measures supplemented by market processes, but an increase in their number might be the result of an increase in population and lack of alternative employment opportunities in the rural areas.

Employment. There are no systematic studies to arrive at specific conclusions on changes in the pattern of employment induced by tenancy reforms over a period of time. The census data indicated a steady increase in agricultural laborers (from 21.8 percent in 1961 to 33.2 percent in 2001) as well as an increase in other workers (from 12.9 percent in 1961 to 22.9 percent in 2001). The liberalization of tenancy has become the latest issue of debate, and many recent seminars have supported and recommended the same. According to a proposal of the Ministry of Rural Areas and Employment, the liberalization of tenancy, particularly in the less developed areas, would help in improving the access of the poor to land through the legalization of leasing. However, thus far no steps have been taken in this direction. 49

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With the initiation of economic reforms and liberalization, agriculture has been moving toward commercialization. As a part of this trend, the practice of contract farming has been initiated by multinational companies, such as Pepsi Company and Hindustan Level Limited in Punjab. So far contract farming has been mostly informal and has taken place without any written agreement. However, an institutional mechanism is expected to help the small and marginal farmers to access the benefits of contract farming without compromising their ownership rights. L. Thulasamma See also Agricultural Labor and Wages since 1950; Contract Farming

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Appu, P. S. “Tenancy Reforms.” Proceedings and Papers of the Seminar on Land Problems: A Project and Prospect. New Delhi: Planning Commission of India, 1989. Banerjee, A. V., and M. Ghatak. “Empowerment and Efficiency: The Economics of Tenancy Reform.” Working paper, Harvard University, 1995. Behuria, N. C. Land Reforms Legislation in India. New Delhi: Vikas, 1997. Dantawala, M. L., and C. H. Shah. Evaluation of Land Reforms, vol. 1. Mumbai: General Report, 1971. Gazdar, Hariss, and Sunil Sengupta. Agricultural Growth and Recent Trends in Well Being in Rural West Bengal in Sonar Bangla. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1999. Haque, T. Impact of Tenancy Reforms on Productivity Improvement and Socio-economic Status of Poor Tenants. Policy Paper 13. New Delhi: NCAP, 2001. Joshi, B. H. An Analytical Approach to Problems of Indian Agriculture: A Theoretical and System Approach. Delhi: B. R. Book Co., 1992. Malaviya, H. D. Land Reforms in India. 2nd ed. New Delhi: All-India Congress Committee, 1955. Pal, Sasanka. Operation Barga and Its Impact on Tenancy Pattern and Productivity. Hyderabad: NIRD, 1997. Webster, Neil. Panchayati Raj and the Decentralization of Development Planning in West Bengal. Kolkata: K. P. Bagchi, 1992.

LANGUAGES AND SCRIPTS The Indian subcontinent has been a virtual laboratory of humanity, from its first settlement by modern humans while on their way to Australia and East Asia, some 50,000 years ago. The remnants of this founding population can still be found in genetics, linguistically in some of the “tribal” languages (Andamanese, Kusunda), and in various substrates. The initial settlement was followed by the immigration of speakers of diverse languages belonging to a number of major language families. 50

Languages India’s language families are, from north to south: Tibeto-Burmese, Indo-European (Iranian and IndoAryan), Khamti (Tai), Austro-Asiatic (Munda, Khasi), and Dravidian. There also are several isolates. Burushaski is regarded by some as the eastern extension of the Macro-Caucasian (Basque–N. Caucasian–Burushaski) family; Kusunda and Andamanese are perhaps linked to Indo-Pacific (Papuan, Tasmanian). In the past, many more languages must have been spoken, as the little studied substrates indicate. Substrates are found in Nahali, Tharu, Vedda, and even in Hindi, where some 30 percent of the agricultural terms are from an unknown source. The same seems to be true for many other North Indian languages; southern Indian substrates have hardly been touched as yet. In sum, South Asia was as linguistically diverse then as it is today. Most South Asian languages now belong to the IndoAryan subgroup of the Indo-European language family that stretched, before the colonial period, from Iceland to Bengal and Sri Lanka. Speakers of Old Indo-Aryan (OIA) must have entered South Asia in the mid-second millennium B.C. OIA, beginning with the Vedic form of Sanskrit, is a close relative of Old Iranian, which has been preserved in some Old Persian inscriptions (519 B.C.) and in the Avesta, the sacred language of the Zoroastrians (Parsi). Dating the earliest OIA is difficult; however, the Vedic dialect that was brought into the Mitanni realm of northern Iraq/Syria (c. 1400 B.C.) is slightly more archaic than the oldest Vedic text in India, the Rig Veda. The early forms of Sanskrit show clear substrate influences, in part from the BactriaMargiana Archaeological Complex (2400–1600 B.C.) and from the Hindu Kush–Pamir areas, all of which points, together with the Mitanni, to evidence of an influx of OIA speakers into South Asia from the northwest. Other forms of OIA include middle and late Vedic; Classical Sanskrit, still a fully inflectional language like Greek and Latin, emerged from a conservative form of OIA. It was codified by the ingenious grammarian Pa¯n.ini, who lived near Attock on the Indus (c. 400 B.C.). Vedic OIA was spoken from this area up to the borders of Bengal and also in western Madhya Pradesh and northern Maharashtra. In its classical form (Sanskrit) it expanded, as the language of the learned, all over South Asia and beyond, to Bali, Vietnam, and, with Buddhist missions, through Afghanistan into Central Asia, China, and Japan. By the time of the Buddha (c. 400 B.C.) OIA had been supplanted as popular language by Middle Indo-Aryan (MIA); some MIA forms are occasionally visible in Vedic texts. The Buddha taught in MIA, though texts in his own eastern dialect have not been preserved; instead, they have come down in the western Pali variety of MIA. Fragments of Buddhist texts also survive in some more ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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recent forms of MIA, as in the oldest Buddhist manuscripts from the first century A.D. The first datable testimony of MIA are the inscriptions of the emperor Ashoka (c. 250 B.C.) They are found, in various dialect forms, all over South Asia. They are, however, in Greek and Aramaic in western Afghanistan, and they are absent in the deep (Dravidian) south. MIA differs from OIA by a number of phonetic and grammatical innovations, such as the assimilation of consonant groups and the restructuring of the verb system. MIA has heavily influenced the epic Sanskrit of the Maha¯bha¯rata and the Ra¯ma¯yan.a. Around the beginning of the common era, several later Prakrit forms of MIA emerged that were used in classical Sanskrit dramas: S´aurasenı¯ in the midlands, Ma¯ha¯ra¯strı¯ in southwest India, the little used “popular” Ma¯gadhı¯ in the east; further, the little known Pais´a¯cı¯ , the Ardha-Ma¯gadhı¯ preferred by the Jains, and the Ga¯ndha¯rı¯ of some Buddhist texts. For a millennium, Prakrit languages were used in inscriptions and poetry as well as in Jain texts, until they gradually gave way to early forms of New Indo-Aryan (NIA) during the latter part of the first millennium A.D. Further loss of grammatical endings is a characteristic of NIA; therefore, both the noun and verb systems were completely restructured, somewhat along the lines of the change from Latin to the Romance languages. The earliest form of NIA is the Apabhram . s´a, preserved in quotes recorded by medieval writers and in the Buddhist stanzas in an eastern dialect. Most of the religious poets of the High Middle Ages used early NIA. Apabhram . s´a and its later form Avahat.t.ha developed into the modern NIA languages during the second millennium A.D. These languages can be divided into central languages (various forms of Hindi) and outlying ones, or into some eight separate subgroups: the conservative northwestern Dardic (such as Kalash, Khowar, Shina, Kashmiri); the partially conservative Pa¯ha¯rı¯ (in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarkhand, and Nepa¯lı¯ , which is spoken up to Sikkim, Bhutan, and Assam); the languages of the Punjab (Lahnda, Panjabi) and Sind, of western India (Gujarati, Marathi, with its Konkani dialect in Goa); the southernmost languages Sinhala (Sri Lanka) and Dhivehi (Maldives); the eastern group with Maithili and Magahi (Bihar), Bengali, Oriya, and Assamese. The large central part of North India is covered by various forms of Hindi. Next to the standard language, there are Bhra¯j, the more divergent Bhojpuri, and Sadani, or Nimari in the South. Urdu is a variant of central NIA and virtually the same language as Hindi, though with much more Persian and Arabic vocabulary; it is written in a version of the Arabic script. Consequently, Pakistan and Kashmir use Urdu, and most states of North India, from Himachal Pradesh up to Andhra and West Bengal, use Hindıi. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Kannada Stone Inscription. A stone inscription in the Kannada language near the town of Banavasi (in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka). In the early 1970s, archaeologists stumbled on a stone pillar (where this piece was unearthed) that shed light on the powerful Kadambas, who ruled Karnataka from A.D. 325. K. L. KAMAT / KAMAT’S POTPOURRI.

Compared to the dominance of NIA languages and their speakers, the Dravidian languages are by and large limited to South India, where Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Tulu, and Kannada are the dominant languages today. Its earliest forms are attested, from about 200 B.C. onward, in the Tamil inscriptions of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and in the classical Tamil texts of the Sangam poems. The early inscriptions indicate influences from a lost protoKannada. The other Dravidian languages have been attested only hundreds of years later, and many “tribal” ones only over the past two hundred years. The time and exact location of the influx of Dravidian into the subcontinent is unclear, but there are clear remnants in topographical terms in Sind, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. These and early cultural influences on Dravidian all point westward: agricultural words came from Sumerian or Elamite, and some even from farther west. However, the language(s) of the Indus Civilization (2600–1900 B.C.) are uncertain, as its inscriptions cannot be read (if indeed they are a script). The supposed linguistic remnant of that time, modern Brahui in Baluchistan, however, is a 51

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late medieval immigrant from central India (as is Kurukh/Oraon and Malto in Jharkhand). Central India has also retained various Gon.d.ı¯ dialects, and South India, especially the Nilgiris (with Toda), has other “tribal” Dravidian languages. A conservative dialect of Tamil has been spoken in northern and northeastern Sri Lanka for many centuries and has considerably influenced the Indo-Aryan Sinhala. Proto-Dravidian is an agglutinative language like its supposed relative, Uralic. It shares many areal features with Central, North, and Northeast Asia and, surprisingly, highland Ethiopia. Some scholars unite Dravidian and Indo-European, along with South Caucasian (Georgian), Afro-Asiatic (Semitic, Old Egyptian, Berber, etc.), Uralic, and Altaic (including Korean and Japanese) in a Nostratic superfamily or, according to a recent proposal, in Eurasiatic. The historical development of the Dravidian languages has been investigated only on a limited basis thus far, in spite of its importance both for the history of the subcontinent as well as for the little-studied southern influence on the literary and religious history of the North. There also has been an enormous influence of Dravidian on the northern languages, starting with certain parts of the oldest OIA text, the Rig Veda. While its earliest stages seem to lack Dravidian words, the text otherwise has a number of early Dravidian loans. Their amount increases throughout Vedic literature, and their impact continues until today, though most speakers of Sanskrit or NIA do not recognize that such words as dan.d.a (stick) are loans from Dravidian. Strong Dravidian influence is also seen in phonology, word formation, and syntax of OIA, MIA and NIA: we can therefore speak of a South Asian “linguistic area” (sprachbund). This linguistic area also includes the Munda languages. Northern Munda is now spoken in eastern and also in western India (Korku, on the Tapti River). In the east, Santali (West Bengal, Jharkhand) and Mundari are the languages with the most speakers; however, Northern Munda (Kherwari) also includes Asuri, Ho, and so on; Central Munda includes Kharia, Juang, and others; and Southern Munda, spoken on the borders of Orissa and Andhra, includes Sora, Pareng, Gutob, and others. Munda itself is the western branch of Austro-Asiatic, which includes, inside India, also Khasi and War (Meghalaya) as well as Nicobar, and outside India, MonKhmer, the related Tai languages, and Vietnamese. Khamti (northern Tai) was the language of the medieval Ahom kingdom and still survives in northeastern Assam. Austro-Asiatic must once have been spoken in a much larger area of North India, as many prefixing loans (often closer to War-Khasi) survive in the Rig Veda. ProtoMunda, which has been reconstructed only over the past few decades, was a largely mono/bisyllabic language 52

working with prefixes and infixes. Under the sprachbund influence of Indo-Aryan, it has shifted to a (largely) suffixing language, especially Northern Munda, which also has an enormous number of NIA loans. The largely uninvestigated Munda and War/Khasi languages (and their oral literatures) contain much that is important for the linguistic, religious, and cultural prehistory of the subcontinent. In the Jharkhand and Meghalaya states, at least Santali/Mundari and Khasi may be maintained, while many of the small tribal languages face quick extinction due to the pressure of neighboring NIA and Dravidian languages. The northern rim of South Asia is occupied by Tibeto-Burmese languages that are linked to Chinese (Sino-Tibetan). Their early history in the subcontinent is unknown; however, even early Vedic texts speak of a mountain people, the Kira¯ta. The earliest documentation is found in place names and in the Licchavi inscriptions (Kathmandu Valley, c. A.D. 200–750), which also refer to the Kira¯ta. After A.D. 983, there are land sale inscriptions on palm leaf in early Newari, the dominant language of the Kathmandu Valley until the Gorkha conquest in 1768–1769, when NIA Nepa¯lı¯ became the offical language. Most other Tibeto-Burmese languages of the Himalayan belt have not left records until very recently. From west to east, they include among others: Magar, Gurung, Tamang, Rai, Limbu, Lepcha, Bodo, Naga, Meitei (in Manipur). In the northernmost Himalayan uplands, various forms of Tibetan are spoken, such as the archaic western dialect of Ladakh, the eastern one of the Sherpa, or the southern one of Bhutan (now the official language, Dzonkha). Early influence of Tibeto-Burmese on OIA can be discerned in the Vedas, such as the topographical names Kosi and Kosala, or the word for cooked rice (Hindi, cawal; Nepa¯lı¯ , camal ). The rest of the South Asian languages, whether remnants or substrates, have been recorded only over the past two centuries. Taken together, they open a wide vista of early relationships: westward to the Caucasus (seen in Burushaski, Dravidian), to Central Asia and beyond (Vedic Sanskrit, Indo-Iranian), Southeast Asia (origin of Munda, Khasi, Khamti), and Greater Tibet (TibetoBurmese). Even wider relationships emerge in the remnant languages and substrates (Kusunda with Andamanese/Papuan, Nahali with Ainu, which is now also evident in genetic data, i.e., sharing the early Y chromosome haplogroup IV videlicet D). The predominance of retroflex sounds found from the Hindu Kush east and southward perhaps was a feature of even the earliest substrates (as in Andamanese). In spite of the great diversity of the prehistoric, ancient, and modern South Asian languages, it has been ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Sanskrit Inscription. The Qutub Minar (a mosque in Delhi also known as Quwwatu’l Islam, “the might of Islam”) was constructed using the components of the Hindu temples it replaced. In its courtyard stands this massive iron column that bears a Sanskrit inscription in Gupta script, paleographically assignable to the fourth century, a date also confirmed by the peculiar style of the column’s capital. D. J. RAY / FOTOMEDIA.

the Vedic form of Sanskrit (still used in ritual) and especially Classical Sanskrit that have exercised a dominant influence on the languages of the subcontinent. Sanskrit has functioned as the language of administration, scholarly discourse, and religion, not unlike Latin in Europe. In spite of the dominant role of Persian in most of northern India after A.D. 1200–1500, Sanskrit remained the language even of some diplomatic and administrative contacts well into the British period. According to census figures (1991), some 45,000 people still claimed it as their (near-)native tongue. Like Latin and Greek in the West, Sanskrit continues to supply technical terms for administration (ra¯s.t.rapati, “president”; anta¯ra¯s.t.rı¯ ya, “international”) or technology (a¯ka¯s´va¯n.ı¯ , “radio”; du¯rdars´ana, “television”; jala vidyut a¯yoga, “hydel (or hydro-electric) project”). Sanskrit influence on the “officialese” of most modern languages is so strong that one jokes that one cannot listen to “the news in Hindi” but rather has to look for “the Hindi in the news.” There is a stealthy Sanskritization of most South Asian languages. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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However, since the British colonial period, and now with globalization, English has increasingly become the lingua franca, largely supplanting the official language, Hindi. South Asian English has developed into a distinct dialect with strong substrate influences, such as pronunciation of dentals (t, d, th) as retroflexes, a peculiar pitch intonation with partially misplaced accents, lack or hypercorrect insertion of the definite article, colloquial changes in the verbal system (“I am knowing this”), and an abundance of substrate words (dacoit, “bandit”; godown, “storage”) and frequent code switching with the local language.

Scripts The earliest scriptlike symbols of the subcontinent belong to the Harappan or Indus Valley Civilization (2600–1900 B.C.). They remain undeciphered, though they have been claimed to represent an early form of Dravidian, and though it is entirely uncertain whether 53

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Dravidian was indeed spoken there and to what extent. The substrates in Vedic rather point to a number of Indus languages. In addition, there even is no consensus about the exact number of the Indus signs (400–600), as to their mutual combinations, and whether the signs represent an alphabet, a syllabo-logographic script, or no script at all. In spite of some regional differences, however, the signs are fairly well standardized throughout the large Harappan area (Pakistan, Punjab, Haryana, and Gujarat). Whether the symbols were used in trade or to indicate political dominance, they quickly disappeared when the Indus Valley Civilization disintegrated. Attempts to link these symbols with later scripts are doomed. Barring a decipherment, the Indus signs provide enough simple, often geometric forms that can be connected with any early script, or even with some potter’s and mason’s marks. Further, there is a millennia-long gap between the last Indus inscriptions (c. 1900 B.C.) and the first ones in later Indian scripts (under Emperor Ashoka, c. 250 B.C.). The first writing in South Asia appears only after the impact of Persian domination of much of Pakistan (530 or 519–327 B.C.). Indeed, Karos.t.hı¯ , the earliest script of the northwestern subcontinent, is an Aramaic-based, rather cursive, Semitic-style alphabet. Aramaic was the language of administration in the Persian empire and even in some of Ashoka’s inscriptions (in Kandahar and Taxila). Unlike all other Indian scripts, Kharoshthi is written from right to left. It is a true alphabet: all vowels that begin a syllable and all consonants are represented by individual signs, but vowel length is not marked. However, due to the abundance of a/a¯ sounds in MIA, postconsonantal a/a¯ are not written but are inherent in the consonant sign. All other postconsonantal vowels are marked by small diacritical signs above, below, or crossing the consonant sign in question. Certain consonant clusters are expressed by ligatures or special individual signs. Unlike Semitic alphabets such as Aramaic, the script therefore is well attuned to the Indian phonetic system. Kharoshthi is older than its sister script, Brahmi, and continued to be used until the third century A.D. in the northwest and in Central Asia (Xinjiang). The other script used in Ashoka’s inscriptions in the rest of India was Brahmi. It seems to have been derived from Semitic scripts (Aramaic, Kharoshthi), but it was completely reconfigured, perhaps under contemporary Greek (Hellenistic) influence, which would be plausible if Brahmi was indeed created under Ashoka. Like Kharoshthi, Brahmi perfectly fits the various contemporary MIA languages; however, it clearly was not designed for Sanskrit. Several Sanskrit phonemes or their allophones (such as r., r.¯, h.) that are missing in MIA are not represented, and Sanskrit inscriptions begin only in the first century B.C. (Ayodhya, Mathura). Brahmi also lacks 54

a method to mark the final vowel-less consonants of Sanskrit words, a feature that does not occur in MIA. As in Kharoshthi, short postconsonantal -a is not written but inherent in the consonant sign. However, long a¯ and all other postconsonantal vowels are marked by small diacritical signs above, below, and to the right of the consonant. Only superficially, this system may look like a mixture of an alphabet with a syllabary. With little variation, the system has been followed until today (except in the early Tamil Brahmi script). Consonant groups are mostly represented by writing a single consonant (in MIA), and later on by a ligature with one subscribed consonant below the other (for Sanskrit). The perfect match between MIA/Sanskrit phonemes and the script has often been explained as the influence of the well developed Vedic phonetic sciences and of Pa¯nini’s grammar. Indeed, Indian alphabets follow, unlike the Semitic ones, a strictly phonetic arrangement, beginning with vowels, then with the consonants arranged from their place of realization at the back of the mouth (velars) to the front (labials), followed by resonants and sibilants. Recently, the finds of some small fragments of inscribed pot shards in Sri Lanka (and then in Tamil Nadu) have cast some doubt about the age of the Brahmi script. Various early dates have been claimed for the finds, all of which are pre-Ashoka. However, small pottery shard fragments can easily be transported through rat holes into lower archaeological levels. More finds are to be awaited. The Brahmi inscriptions must also be viewed in the context of early Tamil Brahmi used in southernmost India (Tamil Nadu and Kerala). Since the second century B.C., Brahmi has been used to write early Tamil, with four signs added for sounds restricted to Tamil. Other than in Ashokan Brahmi, a short postconsonantal -a and all other vowels were indicated by a diacritic, thus k+a, k+a¯, k+i, and so forth. Thus, unlike in all other Indian scripts, double consonants could be written simply by doubling the sign. It is unclear whether this system was based on Ashokan Brahmi that was used in nearby Karnataka, Andhra, and Sri Lanka, or whether it went back to a lost early South Indian form. In sum, Brahmi was used, with little regional variation, all over South Asia, with the exception of the northwest (Kharoshthi). All later alphabets of South Asia (and most of Southeast Asia and Tibet) are derived from Ashokan Brahmi. Even the ordering of the native Japanese Kana syllabary is based on the Indian alphabetic order. During the first centuries A.D., the Brahmi script gradually developed nail-like extensions at the top of the letters (head markers) and, due to writing with ink on palm leaves, a more cursive form as well as some regional variations. A few letters were added that were necessary to write San.
). A diacritic skrit (n, h., intervocalic l, allophones of h., h, h ¯ ¯ indicating vowel-less consonants was added, as well as ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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increasingly more conjuncts (ligatures) for consonant groups (a system used until today). Also, an (invisible) square frame was gradually developed for all letters, which resulted in the squarish northern Gupta script (due to use of ink and pen, c. A.D. 300) and the more rounded southern variety (due to use of stylus for incising letters on palm leaf). The intricacies of paleographical development cannot be traced here. However, the early split between northern and southern alphabets increased. The northern Gupta script developed, during the sixth century, into the angular Siddhama¯trika¯ script that was widely used—even, due to the spread of Buddhism, in China and Japan (where it still survives as Siddham script). A subvariety emerged in the northwest: the early S´a¯rada¯ script, used in Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Gandhara, Swat, and the Punjab, where modern Gurmukhi is a distant descendant. S´a¯rada¯ slowly developed over the Middle Ages and was used in Kashmir by Brahmans well into the twentieth century. Another variety developed in the east: Eastern Nagari (or Proto-Bengali, Gaud.ı¯ ). It took local forms in Bengal, Mithila, and in the Kathmandu Valley (Newari script with many attested subsequent forms: Bhujimol/ Kut.ila¯/Rañjana¯, etc.) Modern Newari script is still used for ceremonial purposes. Early Bengali script developed, around 1400, into the Oriya script that favored, as in South India, round shapes of letters. The mainstream Siddhamatrika developed, around 1000, into early Devana¯garı¯ , with its typical horizontal top line (not maintained in all Siddhamatrikaderived scripts). It has been used in the central area, but also in Gujarat, where it was used by Jains and Brahmans well into the nineteenth century, when it developed its modern Gujarati forms separately. Devana¯garı¯ has also been used in Maharashtra. In the middle ages, a somewhat variant form (Nandina¯garı¯ ) was used in the southern Vijayanagara and Tanjore kingdoms. Due to the selection of Hindi as India’s official language, the use of Nagari has spread to the Himalayas, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Bihar. Sanskrit publications everywhere now use Devana¯garı¯ , though Sanskrit, which has always been written in local scripts, is still written in local forms for local use.

A.D.

In South India, scripts deviated at the same time as in the North. The Pallava script of Tamil Nadu (c. A.D. 500) also had a profound influence on the development of all Southeast Asian scripts. In Karnataka and Andhra, the rounded southern characters became almost fully closed, resulting in the modern Telugu-Kannada scripts. In the deep South, the Grantha script (for Sanskrit) and Tamil were developed from earlier southern scripts. They retain, to some extent, the less rounded forms of the late South Brahmi and Pallava scripts. Tamil has the shortest ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Indian alphabet, due to an ingenious system of writing only phonemes (neglecting predictable allophones, thus k [k, x]) and because of the lack of ligatures, as vowel-less consonants are marked with a superscripted dot/circle ( pul..li). Thus, Tamil script has been easiest to learn, a feature of Tamil writing systems from the beginning. In the middle of the second millennium, Malayalam script was developed out of the Grantha script. The Sinhala script of Sri Lanka is another development of southern Brahmi script. It has been influenced by other medieval South Indian scripts while achieving its typical, rounded modern form. The Siddhamatrika-derived Tibetan script, close to early Sharada, is used in Tibet and in the northernmost areas of the subcontinent, as well as for the national language of Bhutan (Dzongkha). The Limbu, Lepcha, and Meitei scripts are based on a version of the Tibetan script and were used for religious writings. One recently developed form of the Meitei script has been revived as the quasi-official script of Manipur. All Indian scripts are unique and perfect adaptations to the Indian sound systems (phonemes, including some allophones). Most of them, however, remain unwieldy (even in computer use) due to their heavy reliance on individual ligatures for consonant clusters, by positioning Nagari i- before consonants, or due to the split up of the signs for medial -e-, -o- (Bengali, Orissa, southern alphabets). Similarly, the Arabic script used for Urdu and some regional languages (Khowar, Shina, Kashmiri) remains inadequate in expressing the complex vowel systems of NIA. One can only read the Urdu script well if one knows the words intended. However, in Bangladesh the Bengali alphabet (and many Sanskrit loanwords) have been retained. Persian language and script were widely used during the Middle Ages and in the early British colonial period, until Persian was replaced by English in 1835. The English alphabet has been used since for a variety of goals, such as street signs or film advertisements. Some tribal languages (and Nepa¯lı¯ as used by the British army) have also been written in the Roman alphabet, though Devana¯garı¯ has been introduced in many areas more recently. After independence, some had proposed to make a variety of the Roman alphabet the national script, but this idea did not take hold. The recent adaptations for computer use have given a further boost to South Asian alphabets, though the quick spread of computers has also substantially increased the use of the English language, which is still spoken by only a tiny minority of South Asians. Michael Witzel See also Indus Valley Civilization; Literature; Vedic Aryan India 55

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anderson, G. D. S. “Recent Advances in Proto-Munda and Proto-Austroasiatic Reconstruction.” Paper at the Third Round Table on the Ethnogenesis of South and Central Asia. Available at ⬍http://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Esanskrit/ images/html_images/Andersonaamorph-rtf.pdf⬎ Benedict, P. K. Sino-Tibetan: A Conspectus. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1972. Berger, H. Die Burushaski-Sprache. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1999. Cardona, George. Panini, His Work, and Its Traditions. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass 1988. Emeneau, M. B. “India as a Linguistic Area.” Language 32 (1956): 3–16. ———. Dravidian Borrowings from Indo-Aryan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962. ———. Language and Linguistic Area: Essays, Selected and Introduced by Anwar S. Dil. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1980. ———. Toda Grammar and Texts. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1984. Farmer, S., R. Sprout, and M. Witzel. “The Collapse of the Indus-Script Thesis: The Myth of a Literate Harappan Civilization.” Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies 11, no. 2 (2004): 19–57. Available at ⬍http://users.primushost.com/ ~ india/ejvs/issues.html⬎ Hansson, G. The Rai of Eastern Nepal, Ethnic and Linguistic Grouping: Findings of the Linguistic Survey of Nepal. Kathmandu: Linguistic Survey of Nepal and Centre for Nepal and Asian Studies, Tribhuvan University, 1991. Hart, G. L. Poets of the Tamil Anthologies: Ancient Poems of Love and War. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1979. Hinüber, O. von. Das ältere Mittelindisch im Überblick. Vienna: Verlag der Æsterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1986. 2nd rev. ed., 2001. Hultzsch, E. Inscriptions of Asoka. Corpus inscriptionum Indicarum, vol. 1. Reprint, Delhi: Indological Book House, 1969. Kölver, B., and U. Kölver. “On Newa¯rı¯ noun inflection.” Zentralasiatische Studien des Seminars für Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft Zentralasiens der Universität Bonn 9 (1975): 87–117. ———. “Classical Newa¯rı¯ verbal morphology.” Zentralasiatische Studien des Seminars für Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft Zentralasiens der Universität Bonn 12 (1978): 273–316. Krishnamurti, B. The Dravidian Languages. Cambridge, U.K. and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Kuiper, F. B. J. “The Genesis of a Linguistic Area.” IndoIranian Journal 10 (1967): 81–102. Lubotsky, A. “The Indo-Iranian Substratum.” In Early Contacts between Uralic and Indo-European: Linguistic and Archaeological Considerations, edited by C. Carpelan et al. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, 2001. Mahadevan, I. Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. Chennai: Cre-A; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003. Masica, C. P. “Aryan and Non-Aryan Elements in North Indian Agriculture.” In Aryan and Non-Aryan in India, edited by M. Deshpande and P. E. Hook. Ann Arbor: Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan, 1979. 56

———. The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge, U.K., and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Rajan, V.S. A Reference Grammar of Classical Tamil Poetry: 150 B.C.–Pre-Fifth/Sixth Century A.D. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1992. Salomon, R. Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. ———. Ancient Buddhist Scrolls from Ga¯ndha¯rı¯ : The British Library Kharos.t.hı¯ Fragments. London: British Library, 1999. Sivaramamurti, C. “Indian Epigraphy and South Indian Scripts.” Bulletin of the Madras Government Museum, New Series, General Section, 3, no. 4. Chennai: Government of Madras, 1948; reprint, 1966. Steever, S. B., ed. The Dravidian Languages. London: Routledge, 1998. Szemerényi, O. Introduction to Indo-European Linguistics. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Tagare, G. V. Historical Grammar of Apabhramsa. Poona: Deccan College Post-graduate and Research Institute, 1948. Tulpule, S. G., and A. Feldhaus. A Dictionary of Old Marathi. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Westhouse, P., T. Usher, M. Ruhlen, and W. S.-Y. Wang. “Kusunda: An Indo-Pacific Language in Nepal.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2004) 101: 5692–5695. Witzel, M. “Tracing the Vedic Dialects.” In Dialectes dans les littératures indo-aryennes, edited by Colette Caillat. Paris: Collège de France, 1989. ———. “Early Sources for South Asian Substrate Languages.” Mother Tongue, October 1999. ———. “Linguistic Evidence for Cultural Exchange in Prehistoric Western Central Asia.” Sino-Platonic Papers 129 (2003). Zide, N. H. “Munda and Non-Munda Austroasiatic Languages.” Current Trends in Linguistics 5 (1969): 411–430.

LANSDOWNE, LORD (1845–1927), fifth marquis of Lansdowne, viceroy of India (1888–1894). Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice, the fifth marquis of Lansdowne, was born into a powerful Anglo-Irish family closely associated with progressive Indian policy. His predecessors had sponsored Sanskrit and English education on the subcontinent. The “father of modern India,” Ram Mohan Roy, was once a guest in the home in which Lansdowne was born. Charles “Clemency” Canning (viceroy, 1858–1862) was a close family friend. As a result, Lansdowne came to view his service as undersecretary for India (1880) and his assumption of Canning’s former office as a family obligation. Upon his arrival on the subcontinent, Lansdowne found that his predecessor Lord Dufferin had left him ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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with an empty treasury, a constrained scheme for political reform, and a more active policy on India’s northwestern frontier that had alienated the amir of Afghanistan and had unsettled relations with the peoples of that borderland. He soon encountered several new problems, including a bloody revolt in Manipur (1890–1891), an attempt by Parliament to slow the growth of indigenous Indian industry (1891) and a series of political debacles that he largely attributed to the Indian Civil Service’s “lack of sympathy for those they ruled.” Believing that the rise of Indian nationalism was an inevitable by-product of British administration, Lansdowne legitimized the work of the Indian National Congress in an official circular (1890). His relations with Congress leaders were not always smooth, but Lansdowne never strayed far from his faith in India’s political advancement. He overcame harsh Indian Civil Service opposition to his own expanded and more liberal version of Dufferin’s Provincial Councils plan, which was passed into law as the Indian Councils Act of 1892. This act, a pale reflection of the more democratic legislation Lansdowne would have preferred, was cropped by the home government, and the viceroy had to settle for an indirect, rather than explicit mention of the right of Indians to elect their representatives. The act nonetheless became the foundation for India’s further political development. As leader of the House of Lords in 1909, Lansdowne silenced opposition to the expansion of the 1892 legislation (the Morley-Minto Reforms) by George Curzon and other Tory officials. He also secured their acceptance of the appointment of an Indian to both the Council of India and the viceroy’s Supreme Council. Lansdowne was less fortunate in sustaining what was then thought to have been his greatest triumph in India: the making of the Durand Line (1893–1894). This demarcation of the Indo-Afghan border divided several indigenous communities between British India and Afghanistan, but was designed to both amicably settle a host of disputes with Afghan amir Abdor Rahman and provide a new footing for the defense of British India’s northwestern borderlands. Immediately upon his return to England, Lansdowne urged home officials to create a North-West Frontier province that would be managed so as to secure the amir’s good will and also win the support of the Pathans along the frontier by offering the latter the benefits of closer relations with the British, without threatening the political autonomy they cherished. Lansdowne was convinced that unless this change was made immediately, the frontier would soon erupt with catastrophic results. His concerns and advice were ignored, however, and the British military debacles in Chitral and the Tirah followed shortly thereafter. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Lansdowne deeply regretted the cost to India of these “little wars” for empire. This may explain his interest in India during his later service as secretary of war (1895–1900) and foreign secretary (1900–1906). While at the War Office, he testified before the Welby Commission in support of Gopal Krishna Gokhale’s contention that India had long been wrongly charged for military expenditures made in defense of imperial, rather than Indian, interests. Marc Jason Gilbert See also British Crown Raj BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gilbert, Marc Jason. “Lord Lansdowne in India.” Ph.D. diss., University of California at Los Angeles, 1978. ———. “Lord Lansdowne and the Indian Factory Act of 1891: A Study in Indian Economic Nationalism and Proconsular Power.” Journal of Developing Areas 16, no. 3: 357–372. ———. “The Manipur Disaster of 1891.” In Research on Bengal, edited by Ray Langsten. East Lansing: Michigan State University, 1983. Newton, Lord. Lord Lansdowne. London: John Murray, 1929.

LARGE-SCALE INDUSTRY, 1850–1950 The term “large-scale industry” refers to factories that combine at least three characteristics: use of machinery, employment of wage labor, and the application of regulatory measures such as the Factory Act or Disputes Act. These features were of recent origin in nineteenth-century India and, to a large extent, products of British colonial rule. In employment statistics, the units registered as “factories” under the Factory Act can be considered large-scale industry. In reality, the registered factories included a fair number of units that did not employ machinery, but with few exceptions, registered factories did possess the other two features.

Scale, Spread, and Composition Employment in factories in British India increased from 317,000 in 1891 to 1,266,000 in 1938, or from 5 percent of industrial employment to 11 percent (it was 29 percent in 1991). The share of factories in real income generated by industry increased from about 15 percent in 1900 to 45 percent in 1947 (it was 55–60 percent in the mid-1990s). Factory employment in all princely states increased from 130,000 in 1921 to 299,000 in 1938. Impressive as it was, the growth was an uneven one. Industries around Bombay (Mumbai) and Calcutta (Kolkata) accounted for about half of factory employment. Ahmedabad, Madras (Chennai), and Kanpur saw limited development of factories. In the interwar period, 57

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key resources such as capital, labor, knowledge, railway connection, and electric power were no longer concentrated, and industrialization began to spread. As much as 45 percent of factory employment in the early twentieth century was engaged in cotton and jute textiles. Other important groups included tobacco and leather. The share of chemicals, metals, and machinery was very small. Machinery and manufactured intermediate goods were still largely imported. From about World War I, a few bold industrial initiatives were taken, the Tata iron and steel venture being the most significant example.

in new locations as well as crises in old firms in old locations. Competition in textiles and steel was more intense in this period than before. In textiles, competition came from Japan and from many new mills that were started in small towns far from Bombay. The Indian nationalists convincingly argued that the rupee was an overvalued currency in the late 1920s. In steel, world capacity had advanced faster than demand. In jute, Indian capacity grew faster than world demand. The result in each case was low or fluctuating profits. Tariffs alone could not solve these problems. There were attempts to introduce new technology and management practices and to voluntarily restrict supplies.

Chronology

The Great Depression thus came at a bad time for industries like steel, paper, sugar, cement, and jute. Yet turmoil in the financial market, caused by debt crisis and gold exports, led to a conversion of idle rural assets into industrial-commercial uses.

The first burst of investment in cotton and jute mills occurred in the third quarter of the nineteenth century. The capital came partly from foreign investment and partly from capital accumulated in the early-nineteenthcentury trades in opium and cotton. The growth of India’s trade with China after the British East India Company’s monopoly in China trade ended (1834–1835) played an important role in the growth of mill enterprises. The U.S. Civil War (1861–1865), which cut off supplies of American cotton to Lancashire, created a boom in Indian cotton and large profits, part of which found its way into building cotton mills. A tea mania of a similar nature in Calcutta and a gold mania in Madras stimulated the local stock exchanges. World War I was a landmark event. Massive excess demand for Indian goods developed, but at the same time, the flow of machinery, raw materials, spare parts, and chemicals normally imported from Britain or Germany stopped. The immediate impact of supply constraints was rapid inflation from which cotton, jute, and steel emerged as major gainers, though many other constituents of India’s economy were heavy losers. Until the war, the British Raj had followed a hands-off policy with respect to Indian industries, and a buy-British policy with respect to all machines required for defense, railways, or administration. After the war, the government began to look toward local sources and became more open to promoting them. Three events that represent this shift in attitude are the establishment of the Indian Munitions Board (1918), the Indian Industrial Commission (1916–1918), and the Indian Fiscal Commission (1921–1922). All three bodies underscored the need to develop local capability, and endorsed the use of fiscal measures for that purpose. The Fiscal Commission sanctioned the use of protective tariffs for industrial promotion. The interwar period saw rapid industrialization as well as mounting crises. Protective tariffs enabled dramatic growth in sugar, steel, cement, matches, paper and woolen textiles. Within older industries, such as cotton and jute mills, the period saw both the start of new firms 58

World War II again saw excess demand in the presence of supply constraints, and massive inflation. But Indian industry in 1939 was more diversified and better equipped to diversify than it had been in 1914.

Capital and management. Pioneers in modern industry came from communities that had specialized in trading and banking activities. On the west coast, the Parsis, Khojas, Bhatias, the Gujarati traders and bankers based in Ahmedabad, and the Bombay-based Baghdadi Jews were the early mill owners. Several of these communities had a history of collaboration with Europeans. Some had withdrawn from the maritime trade as European firms based in London took control of it. In Calcutta, and in North and South India, Europeans dominated importexport trade, banking and insurance, and eventually jute, engineering, mines, plantations, railways, power, and dockyards. Commodity trade, however, was not in European hands, but in the hands of Indian traders, chiefly the Marwaris. By the end of the interwar period, prominent Marwari firms in Calcutta had entered the jute industry, and on a smaller scale, sugar, paper, cement, construction, and share-broking. The European capitalists did not welcome this trend. Consequently, a schism opened in Calcutta’s industrial-commercial world that took a toll when large European firms became targets of predatory takeovers shortly after independence. Industrial capital was persistently scarce in India, and financial market institutions were undeveloped. The major government-backed Presidency Banks of the period did not supply long-term capital. Indian jointstock banks were prone to bankruptcy. The informal money market served too narrow a clientele with too few instruments. The British “managing agency system,” wherein the owners of a company contracted its management to ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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another firm for a fee was common in India since the nineteenth century. Principals and agents then belonged to a small network, but that situation changed when limited liability became popular beginning in the 1870s. The small shareholder could no longer monitor the managing agent, paving the way for mismanagement and fraud. Despite these problems, the system continued until 1970, in part because the agent facilitated loans and deposits. With the expansion of professional managers and the use of the “holding company” for control, the system became redundant.

Limits on industrialization. Large-scale industry entered the processing of natural resources, abundant and cheap in India, with knowledge imported from Britain. Machinery and intermediates did not develop to a comparable extent because Indian factories could more easily import than produce such things as electrical machinery, transport equipment, or heavy and fine chemicals. It could also import foreign technicians. India’s import-dependence for technology and knowledge had weakened, however, by the mid-twentieth century. Significant changes came only after independence, with protection for the capital goods industries, and substantial government funding for higher and technical education. Tirthankar Roy See also Economic Policy and Change, 1800–1947; Industrial Labor and Wages, 1800–1947; Small-Scale and Cottage Industry, 1800–1947 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bagchi, A. K. Private Investment in India, 1900–1939. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1972. Morris, M. D. “The Growth of Large-Scale Industry to 1947.” In The Cambridge Economic History of India, vol. 2: c. 1757–1970, edited by Dharma Kumar. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1983. Ray, R. K., ed. Entrepreneurship and Industry in India. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994. Roy, Tirthankar. The Economic History of India, 1857–1947. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000.

LEADERS, CHRISTIAN The Protestant Christian communities in South India can be traced back to the work of two German missionaries, George Bartholomeaus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Pleutschau, of the Royal Danish Mission, at the Danish settlement of Tranquebar, in 1706. Missionaries of various societies from England and America later strengthened the Tranquebar community, so that by the end of the nineteenth century the South Indian Protestant missions were well coordinated, concentrating their energies on winning converts and establishing ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Christian churches. Christian doctrines, traditions, and institutions spawned by the missionary community were, of course, interpreted and appropriated by indigenous groups to fulfill their own needs and aspirations. While accepting the “new faith,” the converts evolved their own agendas, which did not necessarily conform to that of the missionaries. The interaction between the missionaries and the Indians among whom they worked set in motion unpredicted consequences. The earliest and the most fascinating account unfolded in rural Tirunelveli, where Robert Caldwell (1814–1891) achieved the largest conversion among the low caste Shanars, known today as Nadars. Caldwell, a missionary of unparalleled importance, left his imprint on almost every aspect of Tamil society. He established schools and churches, and evincing a keen interest in Indian culture and religion, learned several Indian languages. Caldwell’s greatest impact was in education. He produced a number of works, most important of which were The Tinnevelly Shanars: A Sketch of Their Religion and Their Moral Condition and Characteristics as a Caste (1849) and A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages (1856). Rankled by the derisive portrayal of Nadars in Caldwell’s The Tinnevelly Shanars and the authoritarian behavior of the missionaries, Arumainayagam (also known as Sattampillai), a Nadar catechist, founded his Hindu Christian Church of Lord Jesus in 1857 at Prakasapuram in Tinnevelly district. Sattampillai (1824–1919) established the new church to subvert the missionary authority, developing a substantial critique of Western Christianity, which he claimed was corrupt and inauthentic. He also appropriated elements of Judaism for his new church, which he represented as the restoration of the original, pure form of Christianity, thus investing his adherents with a spiritual superiority. Sattampillai’s Hindu Christian Church signaled the first wave of indigenization of Christianity. Caldwell’s magnum opus, A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages, was a pioneering philological work, constructing a new genealogy for South India’s Dravidian languages and culture, as opposed to the Sanskritic languages and culture. It was appropriated by upper caste non-Brahman Hindus to forge a non-Brahman ideology to counter the sociocultural and intellectual hegemony of the Brahmans in South India. Another notable missionary in the Tirunelveli district, G. U. Pope (1820–1907), a colleague of Caldwell, continued his philological tradition by translating Tamil literary works such as Tirukural, Tiruvasagam, and Naladiar, as well as publishing Tamil dictionaries and grammars, extolling the historic glories of Tamil culture. Pope’s work helped to generate theories concerning the 59

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autonomy and purity of the Tamils, stimulating the revival of Tamil language and literature. Indian nationalism’s encounter with Christianity added another dimension to the story. Prominent among the Protestant missionaries in this regard was H. A. Popley (1868–1960), who supported Indian nationalism, openly expressing his solidarity on one occasion by unfurling the Indian National Congress flag next to the Union Jack on the roof of his bungalow during an official visit by the governor of Madras. Popley was keenly interested in traditional music and Tamil literature, and he was the first to set the Gospel hymnal to indigenous melodies. Influenced by Tamil forms of Hindu devotion, he was in the forefront of musical evangelism, assimilating traditional music and performing it during his Christian preaching. He prepared a Hand Book of Musical Evangelism to illustrate the adoption of Indian notation in his work. The Music of India is Popley’s most celebrated work, which reveals the rich heritage of Indian musical culture. He translated the Tamil classic Thirukural into English and quoted from it profusely in his sermons. Among the educated Christians of high social standing, John Lazarus, V. Chakkarai, and P. Chenchiah, prominent public figures in Madras, developed a deep awareness of Indian nationalism. John Lazarus (1849–1925) was a missionary and pastor of the Danish Mission Society in Madras and a firebrand of the Christian community there. Deeply concerned about the prospects and challenges confronting the Indian Christians, he was instrumental in founding the Madras Native Christian Association (1888), aimed at promoting the welfare of the Indian Christian community “by legitimate means” and furthering the political, social, moral, and intellectual advancement of its members. In 1890 he launched the Christian Patriot, an English weekly newspaper of “social and religious progress” in Madras. He was an ardent advocate of the National Church of India, which he tried to revive after the demise of its founder Dr. Pulney Andy. He exhorted Indian Christians to unify by shedding Western sectarianism and creating a united indigenous church in South India. Lazarus evinced keen interest in the Indian National Movement. He praised the Indian National Congress’s role in creating a nation, and he made an appeal to the Christian community to spend “their time and strength and their means” for the welfare of the “Indian nation.” A Tamil scholar, writer, and translator, he was involved in bringing to the fore the richness of Tamil literature and the great antiquity of the Tamil people. He made an intense study of Tamil, translating the grammatical work Nannul and part of the Tamil classic Thirukural into English. He also translated and published a corpus of ten thousand Tamil proverbs. 60

V. Chakkarai (1880–1958) converted to Christianity while a student at Madras Christian College, influenced by William Miller, principal of the college and a wellknown Christian liberal, who joined Indians in their social reform initiatives. Graduating from Christian College in philosophy, Chakkarai completed his bachelor of law degree at Madras Law College in 1906. In 1907 he attended the Indian National Congress session at Surat and became a follower of the extremist leader B. G. Tilak. In 1917 he participated in the Home Rule Movement, and in 1920 he joined Mahatma Gandhi’s movement. Active in the Indian National Congress, he was also an executive member of the Madras Presidency Association, a non-Brahman enclave within the Congress. As a member of the Madras Presidency Association, he favored reservation of electoral seats for non-Brahmans. In 1926 Chakkarai left the Congress, protesting against the practice of serving meals separately to Brahman and nonBrahman students at Shermadevi Gurukulam, a nationalist educational institution run by V. V. S. Aiyar. One of the founding fathers of the trade union movement in India, Chakkarai served as president of the Madras Provincial Trade Union Congress from 1943 to 1958 and as president of the All-India Trade Union Congress from 1949 until his death in 1958. He was a Madras Municipal Corporation councillor for more than thirty years, between 1916 and 1948. He was elected mayor of Madras city in 1941 and was a member of the Madras Legislative Council from 1952 to 1958. Chakkarai’s theological concerns centered on building an indigenous Christian theology. Along with P. Chenchiah, he was one of the founders of the Madras Christo Samaj (Christian Society), which worked for the Indianization of the church. A powerful orator, he was also a prolific writer; his theological quest was reflected in two of his works, Jesus the Avatar and The Cross and Indian Thought. P. Chenchiah (1886–1959) converted to Christianity, along with his entire paternal family, in 1901. In 1906 he graduated from Madras Christian College, where he was influenced by William Miller. He obtained his degree in law in 1908 and began his legal career under veteran politician T. Prakasam, who later became the first chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. Qualifying himself for the master of law degree in 1913, he worked for a while as part-time professor at the Madras Law College. He practiced as an advocate, and from 1929 to 1941 served as chief judge of Pudukottai State High Court. He went to England in 1919 on a political mission to give evidence, as an Indian Christian, before the British Joint Parliamentary Committee in connection with the MontaguChelmsford Reforms. An ardent nationalist, he was also recognized as a stimulating thinker in conceptualizing an ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Indian Christian theology and he was actively involved in the Christo Samaj. Indigenization of Christianity was possible within the framework of the Indian church organization. Those who stood outside the church were concerned more about the nationalists’ critique of Christianity than the anxieties of the Christian community, which was drawn largely from the lower castes. In this process of Indianization, they could function within a miniscule community of Christian intellectuals based on an estrangement with the Christian community and the church organization. Vincent Kumaradoss See also Christian Impact on India, History of BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arooran, Nambi K. Tamil Renaissance and Dravidian Nationalism, 1905–1944. Madurai: Koodal Publishers, 1980. Grafe, Hugald. History of Christianity in India: Tamil Nadu in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, vol. IV, part 2. Bangalore: Church History Association of India, 1990. Houghton, Graham. The Impoverishment of Dependency: The History of the Protestant Church in Madras, 1870–1920. Chennai: Christian Literature Society, 1983. Sundkler, Bengt. Church of South India: The Movement towards Union, 1900–1947. Rev. ed. London: Lutterworth Press, 1965. Thangasamy, D. A. The Theology of Chenchiah. Bangalore: Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and Society, 1967. Thomas, M. M. The Acknowledged Christ of the Indian Renaissance. Chennai: Christian Literature Society, 1991. Thomas, P. T. The Theology of Chakkarai. Bangalore: Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and Society, 1968.

LEGAL SYSTEM. See Judicial System, Modern.

LIBERALIZATION, POLITICAL ECONOMY OF In July 1991, just a month after assuming power, and with India facing an acute balance-of-payments crisis, the government of Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao announced a major reorientation of economic policy. Rao’s finance minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, quickly began lowering trade barriers, scaling back industrial regulation, and inviting in foreign investors. The gradual process of policy change, which came to be known generically as “liberalization” or “economic reform,” was sustained until the Congress Party coalition lost power in 1996. Succeeding governments—of the left and right—have continued to steer India’s economic policy toward a greater reliance on markets and increased exposure to the world economy. Not every reform recommended by market-oriented economists, or proposed by the government itself, has ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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been introduced. Almost a decade and a half after liberalization began, the long-promised “exit policy,” to relax laws that restrict firms’ ability to shed workers, had yet to be implemented. Reforms to India’s agricultural economy also lagged behind, as did pledges to rein in government expenditure and privatize state-owned firms. India’s import tariffs remained consistently higher than many had hoped for, and important controls on the movement of capital were retained. Nevertheless, the shift of economic paradigm beginning in 1991 has been profound. Liberalization’s radical implications emerged only slowly over time, as key policy reforms became rooted and new measures accumulated. Surely, this slippery-slope approach—hoping that early reforms would acquire a self-propelling momentum— helped to neutralize some of the political resistance to liberalization. Of considerable value to reformers was the widespread idea that the reforms were limited in scope, not permanent, and, most of all, were being introduced by prominent members of a political class that had seemingly no interest in shrinking a state to whose largesse they served as gatekeeper. Indeed, in 1991, the new economic policies were greeted by many observers as yet another doomed attempt—one in a long line of half-hearted reform episodes dating at least to the mid-1960s—to fundamentally change India’s dirigiste framework. Even so, for analytical purposes, it is helpful to treat the politics of these two processes—of initiating and then sustaining economic reform—separately.

The Politics of Initiation The theoretical backdrop to the politics of economic reform was a widely held set of assumptions concerning the change-resistant qualities of Indian democracy. Powerful interest groups were thought to exercise a collective veto over any attempt to restructure the policy regime. Pranab Bardhan’s model of the “dominant proprietary classes”—widely quoted during the late 1980s and early 1990s—was the classic statement of this view. The clout wielded by these groups appeared to have been demonstrated conclusively when attempts to reform the Indian economy—by Indira Gandhi during the early 1980s, and by Rajiv Gandhi later in the decade—faltered. In both cases, relatively modest policy initiatives were seen to have given way to politically inspired backtracking, or at least a failure to follow through with more far-reaching reforms. The lack of constancy was blamed on the influence of such powerful constituencies as subsidized farmers, protected industrialists, and rent-seeking bureaucrats, though some accounts highlighted ideological attachments as much as material incentives. 61

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Much of the debate during and since 1991 focused on the role of the international financial institutions (IFIs), namely the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in provoking India to introduce a new, more radical wave of market-oriented reforms than had been contemplated during the 1980s. There were conditions— or “policy conditionalities”—attached to some of the loans that the Indian government received from the World Bank and the IMF at the height of the foreignexchange crisis. The government’s insistence on remaining vague about the nature of the agreements, and widespread awareness within India that conditionalities contained within such loans to other developing countries were in some cases draconian, fueled domestic political speculation that the new government had been forced to announce a wholesale change of policy orientation. Critics of the new wave of reforms argued that India was suffering only a short-term balance-ofpayments crisis, not a fundamental economic catastrophe. Only IFI pressure, said the critics, could explain why a short-term crisis was met with such far-reaching policy reversals. Another view, expressed at the time and bolstered considerably since then, was that India was not pushed by the IFIs into reforming, but that it jumped of its own volition. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the chief official at the finance ministry during the early 1990s, subsequently argued that India’s reform effort was “homegrown,” a view also taken by scholars who have examined closely the sequencing of reform initiatives in such policy domains as financial markets and telecommunications regulation. During the mid-1980s, when India was not under direct pressure from the IFIs, decisions were taken to liberalize slowly in these and other areas, and government-appointed commissions had offered recommendations that subsequently formed the basis of government policy. From this perspective, the IFIs were by 1991 pushing at an open door, not one locked shut by interest groups fearful of losing their perquisites. Others see the IFIs as an important element in the push toward reform, but as actors operating less through coercion and more through a process of modified persuasion. Devesh Kapur (2004) argues that remittances sent back home to India by its global diaspora include “social remittances,” among which he classifies the knowledge and networks of India’s large cadre of foreigntrained economists. Mitu Sengupta (2004) focuses on the key role played by economists of Indian origin who had previously spent time working in the World Bank and the IMF. There were indeed—in the 1980s, but particularly in the 1990s—a sizable number of high-profile “lateral entrants” to the upper echelons of India’s extended economic bureaucracy, people who because of their expert 62

knowledge and transnational professional networks were brought into the policy process, either as special advisors, as secretaries to government, or as economists running government-affiliated research institutes, like the National Council of Applied Economic Research, or working within bodies such as the Planning Commission. The lateral entrants brought with them an intangible clout due to their training and experience at elite institutions abroad. This cut both ways, of course, since some of their opponents charged them with being out of touch with Indian realities, or in the thrall of abstract models; others questioned their motives, claiming that plum jobs in Washington awaited them if they towed the IFI line while serving as government officials. Sengupta takes a more nuanced, and plausible, position on this question. What secured these lateral entrants their positions was a widespread (and probably correct) perception among senior Indian political leaders that the lateral entrants were likely to be treated favorably by IFI representatives when arguing India’s case for additional funding, better terms, and so forth. In other words, the lateral entrants would enter government largely due to their ability to act as external interlocutors, officials who could speak the language of the “Washington Consensus.” They were like ambassadors to a foreign court. Even so, the internal influence of lateral entrants on policy debates was not expected to be great: after all, the politicians who appointed these lateral entrants could arrange for them to exit laterally as well. As it turned out, a number of these “official economists” proved politically deft, in some cases relying on privileged access to bank-conducted research studies in order to prevail in policy battles raging within the upper echelons of Indian officialdom.

The Politics of Sustainability The second key question concerned the ability of India’s reformers to overcome the daunting political obstacles facing them, whatever their motivation for initiating reforms in the first place. Rob Jenkins argued that the reorientation of India’s development strategy could be characterized, to a considerable degree, as “reforming by stealth”—a process in which various tactical maneuvers were employed by governing elites. Based on a strategy of delay, key actors deliberately refrained from highlighting the longer-term implications of initial reform decisions. Narasimha Rao, after leaving office, said of effecting this kind of policy reversal: “What it really entails is a complete U-turn without seeming to be a U-turn.” Jenkins’s explanation stressed three interrelated factors: the political skills of India’s reformers, the fluid ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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institutional environment within which they operated, and the incentives created by the initial policies employed to address the 1991 crisis. The institution of federalism, for instance, meant that politicians in the central government could pass the burden of fiscal reform to the states. Politicians in New Delhi could also rely on state governments to fall in line with the liberalizing ethos, regardless of their preferences: once the central government loosened restraints on private investors the states would be forced to compete for inward investment by reforming their own policy environments. Over time, federalism began to influence the nature of India’s engagement with institutions of global governance. Several state governments entered into structural reform agreements with the World Bank. Moreover, states ruled by “regional” parties became points of leverage for regionally concentrated economic interests adversely affected by the central government’s approach to the World Trade Organization (WTO). With a well-placed regional party advocating their case, such interests were sometimes able to exploit the fact that regional parties had become key elements in national coalition governments. Increasingly, a regional party’s support for a national coalition government was conditioned upon policy favors from New Delhi that would help provincially important economic interests—including measures to cushion them from the effects of WTO agreements. Another explanation for the political durability of India’s reform program of the 1990s was offered by Ashutosh Varshney (1999), who claimed that the government had, during the first several years of reform, focused mainly on issues of little concern to India’s masses, such as financial-sector reforms and trade policy. In other words, reform was politically durable only because India’s was a skewed, cautious, version of reform. India’s reformers had thus mastered the “elite politics” of reform, but had not tackled the “mass politics.” The reformers had achieved what they had, moreover, only by relying on the enormous social cleavages—particularly in the rural sector—that impeded collective action among adversely affected constituencies. Ultimately, Varshney argued, India’s reformers would need to devise a political discourse through which the idea of markets as a social instrument could be sold to a mass audience. The explanations offered by Jenkins and Varshney are not, however, fundamentally in contradiction. Jenkins argued that one of the three factors identified in his framework for understanding the politics of reform—the political skill to cloak policy change in the guise of continuity—is in fact one of the means by which India was able to prevent any reform decisions from entering mass politics. Rather than disagreeing on the nature of causal mechanisms, the difference between these two authors is that Varshney considers one of the variables fixed (the degree to which ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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policy decisions enter mass politics), whereas Jenkins sees it as susceptible to the exercise of political skill.

Future Questions The future research agenda in this field lies largely in sectoral studies, or in research that charts the political implications, rather than the political determinants, of policy choices. These will respond both to existing theories as well as to new challenges to the orthodoxy surrounding India’s economic performance. Dani Rodrik and Arvind Subramanian (2004) represent one such challenge, arguing that whatever one thinks about the intensity (or political durability) of the reforms ushered in by Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh, the reformers of the 1990s had the distinct advantage of taking office at the end of a decade—the 1980s—during which India’s long-term “Hindu rate of growth” (3–3.5 percent annually) had jumped to 5 percent and more. This performance during the 1980s was achieved, according to Rodrik and Subramanian, without fundamental reforms having been undertaken. It was a matter of government sending the correct signals to business interests at the beginning of the 1980s. This could be interpreted to mean that India’s 1980s growth performance relieved the Narasimha Rao government of the obligation to undertake, in 1991, the truly difficult (mass-affecting) reforms for which many analysts called. Another reading would be that the twenty-year time frame merely indicates how important is a gradual approach to achieving sustained reform. Rob Jenkins See also Development Politics; Economic Reforms of 1991 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bardhan, Pranab. The Political Economy of Development in India. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1984 (rev. ed., 1998). Echeverri-Gent, John. “Financial Globalization and India’s Equity Market Reforms.” In The Politics of India’s Next Generation of Economic Reforms, edited by Rob Jenkins and Sunil Khilnani. Special Issue of India Review 3, no. 2 (November 2004): 306–332. Harriss, John. “The State in Retreat: Why Has India Experienced Such Half-Hearted Liberalisation in the 1980s?” IDS Bulletin 18, no. 4 (1987): 31–38. Jenkins, Rob. Democratic Politics and Economic Reform in India. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1999. ———. “How Federalism Influences India’s Domestic Politics of WTO Engagement (And Is Itself Affected in the Process).” Asian Survey 43, no. 4 (2003): 598–621. ———. “Labor Policy and the Second Generation of Economic Reform in India.” In The Politics of India’s Next 63

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Generation of Economic Reforms, edited by Rob Jenkins and Sunil Khilnani. Special Issue of India Review 3, no. 2 (November 2004): 333–363. Kapur, Devesh. “Ideas and Economic Reforms in India: The Role of International Migration and the Indian Diaspora.” In The Politics of India’s Next Generation of Economic Reforms, edited by Rob Jenkins and Sunil Khilnani. Special Issue of India Review 3, no. 2 (November 2004): 364–384. Kohli, Atul. “The Politics of Liberalisation in India.” World Development 17, no. 3 (1989): 305–328. ———. State Directed Development: Political Power and Industrialization in the Global Periphery. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Mukherji, Rahul. “Managing Competition: Politics and the Building of Independent Regulatory Institutions.” In The Politics of India’s Next Generation of Economic Reforms, edited by Rob Jenkins and Sunil Khilnani. Special Issue of India Review 3, no. 2 (November 2004): 278–305. Rodrik, Dani, and Arvind Subramanian. “From ‘Hindu Growth’ to Productivity Surge: The Mystery of the Indian Growth Transition.” KSG Working Paper no. RWP04-13. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, March 2004. Sengupta, Mitu. “The Politics of Market Reform in India: The Fragile Basis of Paradigm Shift.” Ph.D. diss., University of Toronto, 2004. Varshney, Ashutosh. “Mass Politics or Elite Politics? India’s Economic Reforms in Comparative Perspective.” In India in the Era of Economic Reforms, edited by Jeffrey D. Sachs, Ashutosh Varshney, and Nirupam Bajpai. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999.

LINLITHGOW, LORD (1887–1952), viceroy of India (1936–1943). Victor Alexander John Hope, second marquis of Linlithgow, was viceroy of India from 1936 through October 1943. A graduate of Eton, and a colonel in World War I, Lord Linlithgow chaired Parliament’s Select Committee on Indian Constitutional Reform from 1933 to 1934. His committee’s plan was adopted as the Government of India Act of 1935. Linlithgow went out to India a year later to implement that act, succeeding Lord Willingdon as viceroy. A Tory landlord and avid hunter, “Hopey,” as friends called him, expanded the Council of India from seven to fifteen members by the end of his long tenure, hoping perhaps to foist an illusion of representative government on his Indian subjects, despite keeping India’s most popular leaders of the Congress, especially Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, at bay or locked behind British bars. His hatred and distrust of Mahatma Gandhi was no less irrational than Winston Churchill’s. During World War II, Sir Stafford Cripps was sent to India on his famous mission to try to win wartime cooperation from the leaders of India’s National Congress and of the Muslim League. He was authorized to offer India 64

full dominion status after the war ended, though any province wishing to “opt out” of that dominion would be permitted to do so, thus implicitly conceding Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s “Pakistan.” Linlithgow so resented Cripps’s private meetings with Nehru and Gandhi, as well as with Colonel Louis Johnson, Franklin Roosevelt’s special emissary to India, that he angrily wired Prime Minister Churchill, undermining Cripps’s negotiating power, forcing that one and only wartime Cabinet overture to India to collapse. Then, as soon as Gandhi attempted to launch a final satyagraha movement against the British Raj in August 1942, Linlithgow ordered Gandhi’s predawn arrest, together with that of members of Congress’s Working Committee, doomed to rust for the remaining years of the war behind British bars. Like Churchill, Linlithgow preferred dealing with Muslim leaders, primarily Jinnah, the Muslim League’s Quaid-i-Azam (Great Leader), than with any member of the Congress. The British Indian army remained heavily dependent on its Muslim and Sikh recruits. Linlithgow knew that as long as Jinnah’s League remained strong, it would serve to contradict Congress’s claim to represent “all” of India’s population, not just its Hindu majority. Churchill and Linlithgow were not the only Tory leaders to play that Muslim “green card” in their political negotiations with Congress, but they were two of the most powerful. Linlithgow was succeeded as viceroy by India’s commander in chief, Field Marshal Lord Wavell. Linlithgow returned home to chair the Midland Bank, and also served as Lord High Commissioner of the Church of Scotland. He died during a bird shooting party on his vast estate in 1952. Stanley Wolpert See also Gandhi, Mahatma M. K.; Government of India Act of 1935; Jinnah, Mohammad Ali; Wavell, Lord

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Amery, L. S. The Empire at Bay: The Leo Amery Diaries, 1929–1945, edited by John Barnes and David Nicholson. London: Hutchinson, 1988. Glendevon, John. The Viceroy at Bay: Lord Linlithgow in India, 1939–1943. London, 1971. Mansergh, N., and E. W. R. Lumby, eds. The Transfer of Power, 1942–7, vols. I–IV. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1970–1973. Wolpert, Stanley. Jinnah of Pakistan. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984. ———. Shameful Flight: The Last Years of the British Empire in India. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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LITERATURE This entry consists of the following articles: MODERN TAMIL

MODERN Throughout its history, the literature of the Indian subcontinent has been characterized by an exuberant diversity of languages and has been enriched by ever-shifting dialogues among these languages and the regions and cultures they represent. The development of modern Indian literature in the second half of the nineteenth century was the result of such dialogues—between the English language, a colonial import that replaced Sanskrit and Persian as the medium of education, and the more than twenty regional languages of India, many with literary traditions stretching back a thousand years or more. In the nineteenth century, some Indian writers wrote in English, but the majority adapted European genres, such as the novel and the short story, to the “vernacular,” regional languages, writing on modern themes and forging new literary languages and styles. The second half of the twentieth century saw the adoption of English as a major language for Indian fiction, and from the 1980s onward, Indian and South Asian writers in English have been leading figures on the global literary scene. Modern Indian literature mirrors the diversity and vibrancy of modern India. From its very beginnings, Indian fiction has offered—often more discerningly and more reliably than documentary sources—imaginative commentary on India’s social and political realities, and on the negotiations of India’s traditional cultures with the West and with the modern world.

The British Colonial Period to 1947 Modernity, the novel, and the nation. The rise of modern Indian literature in the nineteenth century reveals the complexity of India’s encounter with colonialism, and of the country’s entry into modernity. As early as 1835, the British colonial government had introduced English education for upper-class Indians, so that they could serve in the administration of the colony. With the establishment, in 1857, of universities in the three Presidencies of Madras (Chennai), Bombay (Mumbai), and Calcutta (Kolkata), a significant number of Indians gained access to European thought. The colonists had hoped that an English education would teach their Indian subjects Western values, and would wean them from what they considered pernicious ideas propagated by Indian religious and literary texts. British condemnation extended to the aesthetic of Indian literature as well. However, the creation of an English-educated upper ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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middle class affected Indian literary production in ways that the colonial government could hardly have anticipated. The new education had brought with it the nineteenth-century European ideals of individualism, progress, and nationalism. Stung by British criticism of Indian society and literature, yet exhilarated by European Orientalist scholars’ celebration of ancient Indian culture, Indians began writing in modern literary forms to represent new realities, but also to reimagine India’s history, and to advocate for social and political change. And they wrote in the Indian languages, rather than in English. Prose fiction, marked by realism, linear narrative, and a focus on the individual, displaced the earlier Indian literary modes of myth and poetry, with their emphasis on ideal images and social types. Not surprisingly, the novel, a form whose development in Europe was linked with the rise of the middle class and the concept of the nation, became the principal genre of Indian literature in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. However, from the very beginning, Indian writers shaped the Western literary form to suit Indian linguistic, literary, and cultural sensibilities, drawing eclectically from the diverse literary traditions they had inherited, both classical and popular, in Sanskrit, Persian, and the regional languages. The “Bengal Renaissance” in Calcutta, the British capital, was at the vanguard of the new literary and cultural movements. The pioneering writer Bankim Chandra Chatterji wrote Bengali novels on social reform and resistance to colonial rule. In Bisha briksha (1873; translated as The Poison Tree, 1884), Chatterji treated the plight of upper caste Hindu widows, who were forbidden to remarry. His Ra¯jsingha (1881) was a fictional account of the glory of the Rajput chiefs, suggestive of the grandeur of Indian civilization; in A¯ nanda Math (1882; translated as The Abbey of Bliss, 1906), in the guise of a historical novel about an earlier period, he allegorized the violent overthrow of British rule in India. By 1885, the date of the founding of the Indian National Congress, an organization dedicated to economic and political reform, the ideals of nationalism and social justice had become the inspiration, not only for political activists, but also for Indian writers. Many early Indian novelists dealt with social issues, and especially with controversies relating to the treatment of women in Indian society, the object of the most trenchant European criticism, and a sore point with Indians, both reformers and traditionalists. The early novels focused on the ways in which Indian women of the middle and upper classes were oppressed by the denial of personal freedom, education, and economic autonomy. The writers were also deeply engaged with the question of women’s entry into the modern nation and public life, and the tremendous social upheavals these developments 65

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entailed. Chatterji’s Poison Tree, Baba Padmanji’s Yamuna paryatan (Yamuna’s journey, 1857, in Marathi), and Chokher bali (1901, in Bengali; translated as Binodini, 1968) by Rabindranath Tagore, a great humanist and a towering figure in the history of modern Indian writing, were only three among a large number of novels focusing on the condition of widows. In Indulekha¯ (1889), the first novel written in Malayalam, Chandu Menon presented his eponymous heroine as the ideal “modern” woman. In Ghare ba¯ire (1915, in Bengali; translated as Home and the World, 1919) Tagore criticized fanatic nationalism, while sympathetically portraying the dilemmas of women caught in the debate between tradition and modernity. In the 1880s and 1890s, publishing short stories that sensitively depicted the lives of ordinary villagers in East Bengal, the multifaceted Tagore introduced the short story genre to Bengali (e.g., Chuti, 1892; translated as The Homecoming, 1916) and to Indian literature.

Poetry and other genres. Departing from the archaizing cadences of the Bengali verse of the pioneering poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt (Meghna¯dbadh, 1861; translated as The Slaying of Meghanada, 2004), Tagore also pioneered a modern poetry for the Bengali language. In 1913 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Gı¯ ta¯njali (Song offering, 1912; translated as Gitanjali, 1916), a collection of his poems that he translated into English at the request of the poet W. B. Yeats. Tagore’s many musical dramas (e.g., Da¯k-ghar, 1912; translated as The Post Office, 1914) were performed at Santiniketan, the modern school he founded near Calcutta to nourish Indian culture and arts, and throughout India. Like her predecessor Toru Dutt, Sarojini Naidu, a Bengali by birth, wrote poetry in English. While Dutt died at a very young age, Naidu became a celebrated leader of India’s freedom movement and published, in addition to several volumes of poetry on Indian culture and Indian women’s lives (e.g., The Golden Threshold, 1905), speeches and essays in English. Modern poetry flourished in all the Indian languages, and grew to maturity in the middle years of the twentieth century. The Tamil writer Subramania Bharati’s passionate poems espousing the cause of freedom from British rule are among the first examples of modern writing in the Tamil language. Other writers, such as the noted Hindi poets Sachidananda H. Vatsyayan (“Agyeya”), Suryakant Tripathi (“Nirala”), and Mahadevi Varma (a woman writer and winner of a major award from the Indian Academy of Letters), wrote poetry of a more introspective, personal character. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, women from the rising Indian middle class became authors of fiction as well as nonfiction, especially memoirs and works centered on women’s issues and social change. Celebrated examples include: The High-Caste Hindu 66

Woman (1887, in English), reformist Pandita Ramabai’s book about the condition of Hindu women; Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain’s Bengali writings on the constraints of seclusion (purdah) on Muslim women (e.g., the collection of essays Avarodhbasini [1928–1930; translated as Inside Seclusion, 1981]); and Krupabai Satthianadhan’s autobiographical novel Saguna: A Story of Native Christian Life (1894, in English). Tarabai Shinde argued for the superiority of women’s character in her Marathi essay Stripurush tulna (1882; translated as A Comparison of Men and Women, 1991); in Sultana’s Dream (1905, in English), Rokeya Hossain imagined a utopian world in which women ruled benevolently and ushered in progress through scientific achievement.

Indian writing from World War I to 1947. Two movements influenced and stimulated Indian writing between World War I and II: the nonviolent movement toward freedom for India, led by Mahatma Gandhi, and the international Marxist-socialist movement advocating social justice for laborers, peasants, and the masses. Two great novels of social realism and critique of injustice were published in 1936: Goda¯n (translated as The Gift of a Cow, 1968), the Hindi writer Premchand’s epic novel of peasant life in North India; and the Bengali novelist Manik Bandyopadhyay’s Putul na¯cher itikatha¯ (translated as The Puppet’s Tale, 1968), a novel about rural Bengal. By the 1930s and early 1940s, the short story had become a major genre in Indian literature, and Premchand and other writers of this generation are celebrated for their classic short stories on similar themes. Bibhuti Bhushan Banerjee’s Pather pa¯ncha¯lı¯ (1929, in Bengali; translated as Song of the Road, 1968), a classic evocation of a rural childhood, stands out as a novel in the humanistic tradition of Tagore. The 1930s also saw the rise of the Indian novel in English. Raja Rao’s Kanthapura (1938) was revolutionary, in terms of both theme (the involvement of Indian villagers in the Gandhian freedom movement) and style. Rao himself declared that he had written this novel not in the standard language and style of English fiction, but in an English reshaped to reflect the Kannada language speech of women in a South Indian village and the style of storytelling in the Sanskrit Pura¯n.as (mythological texts) and women’s folktales. Mulk Raj Anand’s English novels Untouchable (1935) and Coolie (1936), dealing with the injustice of caste and oppressive labor practices, are representative of the progressive stream in Indian writing in this period. R. K. Narayan, who began a long and illustrious literary career with the novel Swami and His Friends (1935), is an exception among the writers who flourished in the mid-1930s, since his novels focus on character and the flow of human life, rather than on larger social and political issues. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Autobiography as a genre gained in popularity during this period. Mahatma Gandhi’s An Autobiography: Or, The Story of My Experiments with Truth was quickly translated from Gujarati into English (1929). Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi’s disciple and the future prime minister of India, published his English autobiography in 1936 (An Autobiography). Nirad C. Chaudhuri’s The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian (1951, in English) is second only to Gandhi’s autobiography in fame.

Modern Indian Literature from Independence to the Twenty-first Century Major themes and trends, 1947–1980s. The year 1947, in which India became free of British colonial rule, marks a watershed in the development of modern Indian literature. Independence impelled writers to grapple with the ideals and realities of post-colonial nationhood. On the one hand, there was the euphoria of freedom. On the other, the division of the Indian subcontinent into two separate nations, India and Pakistan, and the ensuing violence traumatized the Indian people. Through the years of the freedom movement, Hindus and Muslims had become increasingly divided on the issue of culturalnational identity, and the partition of India was accompanied and followed by great communal violence, especially on the new territorial borders, in the divided territories of Punjab and Bengal and in the disputed area of Kashmir. The agony of partition became a part of the experience and memory of the people of India and Pakistan, many of whom were uprooted from their home territories or suffered from the division of their families. Indian fiction from 1947 to the present reexamines India’s recent past, both positive and negative aspects, explores the political and social problems and issues that have emerged in independent India, and comments on the changing Indian society in an era of increasing globalization and the migration of South Asians to Western countries. In the years following independence, the humanistic and progressive trends represented by earlier writers such as Manik Bandyopadhyay and Mulk Raj Anand continued to flourish in fiction from every region in India. Examples include: U. R. Ananta Murthy’s Kannada novel Sam . ska¯ra (1965; translated as Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man, 1976), a work about the decaying Brahman priestly community in a Karnataka village; the Hindi writer Shrilal Shukla’s Ra¯g Darba¯rı¯ (1968; translated as Raag Darbari: A Novel, 1992), a novel about politics in a North Indian provincial town; Chemmeen (Shrimp, 1956), Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai’s celebrated Malayalam novel about the fate of the individual in a fishing community in Kerala; and Vyankatesh Madgulkar’s Bangarva¯d.ı¯ (1955; translated as The Village Had No Walls, 1967), a Marathi novel about the shepherds of Maharashtra. Modern Indian ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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drama often undertakes social and political critique. Marathi playwright Vijay Tendulkar directs mordant satire at Maharashtrian society in plays such as Sha¯ntata¯, kort cha¯lu¯ a¯he (1967; translated as Silence! The Court Is in Session, 1978) and Gha¯shı¯ ra¯m Kotwa¯l (Ghashiram the constable, 1972). Drama has also been the medium for avantgarde and experimental work such as Girish Karnad’s Kannada plays Hayavadana (Horse-head, 1971), a meditation on reality and personal identity through a folktale, and Na¯gamandala (1989; translated as Play with a Cobra, 1990) a play that illuminates the power of stories through its evocation of a folk ritual. From the 1970s onward, activist and feminist women writers have become major voices in Indian fiction. In her Urdu short stories, written between the 1950s and 1970s (e.g., Badan kı¯ khushbu¯, translated as “Scent of the Body” in 1994), Ismat Chughtai uses bold and direct language and vivid, detailed descriptions to depict the ironies and injustices of women’s lives in Indian society, especially in Muslim circles in India. Mahasweta Devi, winner of the Indian government’s Jnanpith award, combines social activism among tribals and other marginalized groups in eastern India with an extraordinary writing career. Creating an array of memorable characters in her powerful Bengali short stories and novels (e.g., Stanada¯yinı¯ , translated as Breast-Giver, 1988), Devi exposes with devastating clarity the convergences between the exploitation and subordination of women and the lower classes. Recent anthologies of fiction in translation, such as Women Writing in India (edited by S. Tharu and K. Lalita, 1990–1993), have helped make Indian women writers accessible to a wider audience. The recent movement of Dalit (“oppressed”) writing, in which men and women of marginalized and low caste communities write poetry and fiction about their own lives, communities, and points of view (e.g., the Marathi poems and essays by Namdeo Dhasal and others, in English translation, in Untouchable!: Voices of the Dalit Liberation Movement, edited by Barbara R. Joshi, 1986), is a significant development in modern Indian literature. Dalit writers have produced poetry and fiction in all of the Indian languages. Autobiography, with its power to document and bear witness to the struggles of the disenfranchised, is a major genre in Dalit writing (e.g., Vasant Moon, Growing Up Untouchable in India: A Dalit Autobiography, translated from the Marathi in 2000). The partition of the Indian subcontinent is perhaps the single most persistent theme in Indian and Pakistani fiction since 1947, appearing in writing in English as well as in the regional languages. Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan (1956, in English) is one of the earliest novels to evoke the horrors of the violence that accompanied partition, while Saadat Hasan Manto, who lived first in India 67

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and then in Pakistan, bears witness in his eloquent Urdu short stories to the personal trauma of divided identities and the societal and national tragedies brought about by partition. Manto’s most famous story is Toba¯ Tek Singh (translated in Kingdom’s End and Other Stories, 1987), in which he depicts the dislocation of populations at partition as an absurd event viewed from the perspective of the inmates of a lunatic asylum. Indian writer Bhisham Sahni’s Hindi novel Tamas (translated as Darkness in 1989), a chronicle of partition, was made into a film for Indian television. In the Pakistani woman writer Bapsi Sidhwa’s gripping English novel Cracking India (published as Ice-Candy Man, 1988), we see the events of 1947 through the eyes of a little girl.

Indian writers in English: From the 1970s to the present. The most striking change in Indian literature from the 1970s onward is the accelerated rise of English as a major language for Indian literary endeavor. In the post-independence era India has produced a noteworthy body of poetry in English, by such figures as Nissim Ezekiel, Arun Kolatkar, Jayanta Mahapatra, and Arvind Krishna Mehrotra. Fiction, however, is the chosen vehicle of the majority of Indian writers in English, who apparently feel more at home in English than in any other literary language. The acclaim they have won, both among the increasingly cosmopolitan urban middle classes in today’s India and among an international audience, attests to the fact that English is now firmly a part of the Indian literary landscape. The earlier generation of Indian writers in English (often called “Indo-Anglian” writers) is represented above all by R. K. Narayan, who is celebrated for his humanism. Between the 1950s and 1980s, with the publication of more than twenty novels, including the celebrated The Financial Expert (1952), The Man-eater of Malgudi (1961), and The Vendor of Sweets (1967), Narayan became the preeminent Indian author in English. The idiosyncratic, likable characters in Narayan’s novels, who live in the world of middle-class South India as seen through the author’s ironic yet compassionate eyes, and the mythic town of Malgudi, created as the setting of his major fictional works, are well known throughout the world. Prominent among Narayan’s contemporaries are the women writers Kamala Markandaya (Nectar in a Sieve, 1954) and Ruth Prawer Jhabwala (Heat and Dust, 1975). Anita Desai is another powerful voice in Indian English fiction of the 1970s and 1980s. In her finely crafted novels Desai explores the sensibilities of Indian men and women of the English-educated middle classes in the post-colonial era. Among her major novels are Clear Light of Day (1980), in which she portrays the relationship of siblings in a Delhi family against the background of partition, and In Custody (1984), a comedic yet 68

profound treatment of the fate of Indo-Islamic Urdu poetry and aesthetics in post-independence India. The publication of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children in 1980 marks a turning point, not only in the history of modern Indian literature, but in English fiction worldwide (the novel won the Booker Prize in 1981). This spectacular novel narrates the life and adventures of Saleem Sinai, a child of mysterious and contested parentage, who is born at midnight on 15 August 1947, the precise moment of India’s birth as an independent nation, and who is thus “handcuffed to history”; through this narration, Rushdie offers remarkable insights into the problems of personal and national identity in post-colonial nations. As a South Asian author who had lived in India, Pakistan, and Britain, in 1980 Rushdie was uniquely positioned to interrogate the conception of nationality in the late twentieth century. Equally remarkable is the host of innovative stylistic features in the novel, including a highly original narrative style, a uniquely Rushdian magical realism, and an English that is effectively infused with words, phrases, and entire registers from Indian languages. Rushdie’s other works include Shame (1983), a novel about Pakistan, and The Moor’s Last Sigh (1995), in which his wonderfully inventive imagination and linguistic facility are fully in evidence. Since Midnight’s Children, a growing number of young Indian writers have written novels in which they explore the issues of national and transnational identity and history within the Indian context. In A Fine Balance (1996), a novel set in Bombay, Rohinton Mistry deals with the modern Indian politics of class and communalism in the setting of the “National Emergency” declared by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975. Upamanyu Chatterjee’s English, August: An Indian Novel (1988) explores the cultural and political dilemmas of the young Indian bureaucrat; Vikram Seth’s epic novel A Suitable Boy (1993) traces the history of a family in a fictional town in post-independence India. Among the most ambitious and innovative of these new authors is Amitav Ghosh, whose first novel, The Circle of Reason (1986), offers a bold new approach to the issue of cultural identity. In The Shadow Lines (1988), Ghosh simultaneously traces the histories of two families, one Indian and one British, and exposes the senselessness of the violence engendered by the division of the Indian state of Bengal, leading to the formation, in 1947, of East Pakistan and, in 1971, of Bangladesh. The Shadow Lines questions the validity of boundaries of all sorts, interpersonal as well as international. The latest Indian author in English to achieve world renown is Arundhati Roy, whose The God of Small Things (1997) won the Booker Prize and has since been translated into a large number of world languages. In her novel, Roy makes masterful and original use of language, metaphor, and narrative style, both to evoke the deeply vulnerable ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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Arundhati Roy. With the new crop of Indian writers describing the experience of life in a post-colonial world, Indian writing in English has become a major phenomenon in world literature. In her acclaimed The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy, photographed here, has made original use of language, metaphor, and narrative style to deliver a powerful critique of oppression. AMIT BHARGAVA / FOTOMEDIA.

emotional world of childhood and to deliver a savage critique of oppressive social institutions. Her powerful, crystalline images and musically resonant sentences have a haunting beauty, even as they convey a stunningly vivid sense of human emotion. Estha and Rahel (Roy’s “dizygotic twin” protagonists), Sophie Mol (the cousin whose death transforms their life), and the love between the twins’ mother Ammu and Velutha, the Paravan “untouchable,” have become part of the cultural memory of communities as far apart as Finland and Thailand, and the small Kerala town of Ayemenem is now a familiar and beloved place the world over. With this new generation of Indian authors, who have written powerful novels about the experience of living in a post-colonial world, Indian writing in English has become a major phenomenon in world literature. In the final decade of the twentieth century and the early years of the twenty-first, a new group of writers is ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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becoming increasingly prominent among authors of fiction on themes related to India and South Asia. Variously identified as “diaspora writers,” “Asian American writers,” and so on, these are writers of Indian (or Sri Lankan, or Pakistani) origin who live abroad, or who have grown up outside South Asia, and who write about the conflicts and challenges of negotiating hybrid and transnational identities. An accomplished and pioneering writer in this group is Bharati Mukherjee, whose fiction ranges from the novel The Tiger’s Daughter (1971), in which she portrays the cultural dilemmas of a young upper class Bengali woman who visits her family in Calcutta after marrying an American, to the short stories in the collection The Middleman and Other Stories (1988), in which she depicts both the exhilaration and the conflicts of the immigrant experience in the United States, portrayed through characters of varied class affiliation and national origin. Jhumpa Lahiri won acclaim (and a Pulitzer Prize in 2000) for the short stories she published in The Interpreter of Maladies (1999), in which she maps, with great restraint, and in spare, elegant prose, the delicate emotions and complex inner worlds of Indian immigrants. In The Namesake (2003), her first novel, Lahiri fulfills the promise of her earlier work, using the powerful trope of naming to illuminate the complexities of the immigrant experience of self, identity, and belonging. When her protagonists Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli, a traditional Bengali couple who have settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, are forced by circumstances to bestow on their newborn son the improbable name of “Gogol,” entire worlds are thrown out of balance, but wondrous epiphanies are also made possible.

Global fiction, global audiences: “Indian” writing today. The high visibility of Indian English authors in the global arena has prompted some critics to wonder whether English writing will deflect the world’s attention from equally good writing in the Indian languages, and whether, within India itself, the rise of English might stifle literary production in the other languages. So far, however, Indian writers of every description, those who live abroad and those who live in India, those who write in English and those who write in the Indian languages, continue to produce vibrant works, and to command avid readerships. Within India, the Sahitya Akademi (India’s national “Academy of Letters,” established by the government in 1954), and private organizations such as Katha (Story), work diligently to promote the translation of contemporary regional language fiction from the original language to other Indian languages and English, and from English to Indian languages. With the rapid growth in travel, migration, and communication between India and the rest of the world, there is reason to believe that works from all the Indian languages will in time gain global circulation. 69

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There are undeniably major differences in the concerns, approaches, and audiences of modern writing in English (especially by diaspora writers) and writing in the Indian languages. While the former is inevitably preoccupied with issues such as cultural identity and postcolonial hybridity, the latter is often focused on highly localized cultural experiences within the diverse, intensely particularized linguistic, cultural, and physical landscapes of India. And yet, perusal of the boldly conceived anthology of modern Indian writing (The Vintage Book of Modern Indian Literature, 2004), in which the writer Amit Chaudhuri has juxtaposed Indian English fiction and nonfiction with works in translation from the regional languages, reveals surprising and exciting linkages between the two categories of works. Both the Asian American writer Bharati Mukherjee, in the short story “The Tenant” (1988), and the Chennai (Madras)-based author Manjula Padmanabhan, in her English short story “Mrs. Ganapathy’s Modest Triumph” (1996), are interested in a recurrent theme in South Asian fiction: single women and the Indian arranged marriage system. Ambai (C. S. Lakshmi)’s use of an innovative mix of realism and counter-realistic description in her Tamil short story “Velippadu” (1988; translated as Gifts, 1992) aligns her as much with Salman Rushdie as with any other writer, and the quality of her writing is evident even in translation. Neela Padmanabhan’s Tamil novel Talaimuraikal (1968; translated as The Generations, 1972) exudes the very smell of the soil of a village in Nanjilnadu in South India; Manil Suri’s The Death of Vishnu (2001, in English) and Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance (1996, in English) make the apartment houses, bustling streets, and the diverse inhabitants of intricate social networks in the modern city of Mumbai palpably real; and Pankaj Mishra’s The Romantics: A Novel (2000, in English) breathes the atmosphere of the ancient Indian city of Benares and the River Ganges. More than 150 years after its inception, modern Indian literature seems to be alive and well, as productive and as irreducibly plural as ever, and English and the Indian languages appear to be engaged in a new series of conversations. Indira Viswanathan Peterson See also Anand, Mulk Raj; Chatterji, Bankim Chandra; Chaudhuri, Nirad C.; Naidu, Sarojini; Narayan, R. K.; Tagore, Rabindranath BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bhalla, Alok. Stories about the Partition of India. Delhi: HarperCollins, 1994. A representative collection of short stories on the partition of India, by South Asian authors from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, in Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, and Marathi. Chaudhuri, Amit. The Vintage Book of Modern Indian Literature. New York: Vintage Books, 2004. The best introduction 70

to modern Indian writing in a historical context, from the beginnings to the present. In his thoughtful, critical introduction Chaudhuri points out the importance of reading modern Indian works in English and the Indian languages as a coherent, connected body of work. Selections include fiction, poetry, autobiography, and essays in English and in translation from the major Indian languages. The authors represented range from Rabindranath Tagore to Vikram Seth. Joshi, Barbara R., ed. Untouchable! Voices of the Dalit Liberation Movement. Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Zed Books, 1986. A landmark collection of fiction, poetry, essays and other writings by Dalit authors. Translation, mainly from Marathi, with a comprehensive introduction to the history of the Dalit movement. Rushdie, Salman, and Elizabeth West, eds. Mirrorwork: Fifty Years of Indian Writing, 1947–1997. New York: H. Holt, 1997. Selections from writing from the postindependence era, in English, except for a story by Manto in translation from the Urdu. Tharu, Susie, and K. Lalita. Women Writing in India: 600 B.C. to the Present. 2 vols. New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 1991–1993. An original and comprehensive anthology of Indian women’s writing from the beginnings to the present, mainly in translation from the Indian languages. Excellent contextual introductions and critical introductions to each author and her works. HISTORICAL SURVEYS

Das, Sisir Kumar. A History of Indian Literature, vol. 8: Western Impact: Indian Response, 1800–1910; vol. 9: Struggle for Freedom: Triumph and Tragedy, 1911–1956. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1991. These two volumes treat modern Indian literature through the 1950s in the Sahitya Akademi’s multivolume history of Indian literature. Iyengar, K. R. Srinivasa. Indian Writing in English. London: Asia Publishing House, 1962. A critical survey of Indian writing in English through the late 1950s. Naik, M. K. A History of Indian English Literature. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1982. A brief survey of Indian English writing to 1980. CRITICAL STUDIES

Kanaganayakam, Chelvanayakam. Counter-realism and Indo-Anglian Fiction. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2002. Kanaganayakam illuminates counterrealism as a stylistic strategy used by widely different Indian writers in English, such as R. K. Narayan and Salman Rushdie, to resist Eurocentric and colonialist literary histories and categorizations. Mukherjee, Meenakshi. The Twice Born Fiction: Themes and Techniques of the Indian Novel in English. New Delhi: Heinemann, 1971. ———. Realism and Reality: The Novel and Society in India. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1985. ———. The Perishable Empire: Essays on Indian Writing in English. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Mukherjee’s three works constitute the best critical, historical studies of modern Indian fiction from the beginnings to the present. Realism and Reality traces the rise of the novel in India, and the interplay of English and the Indian ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

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languages in this development. The Twice Born Fiction is a nuanced study of the Indian novel in English in the first half of the twentieth century. In the essays in The Perishable Empire, Mukherjee discusses global Indian fiction of the late twentieth century in relation to national, colonial, post-colonial, and global politics.

TAMIL Tamil, the oldest of the Dravidian language group spoken in southern India, has a history dating back to the early centuries before the common era. The earliest Tamil literature to survive is known by later Tamil commentators from the seventh century as the poetry of the . Cankam or “academy” of Madurai. This poetry is diverse, and it was organized into anthologies of different sizes . some time after their composition. The Cankam literature is thematically divided into akam, “interior” love poems with anonymous characters, and puram, “exterior” poetry on war, the praise of kings, and other subjects. . The Cankam poetry relies on a complex and highly conventional system of seasons, times, and landscapes to indicate different moods and situations. These conventions are laid out, inter alia, in the earliest grammar of the language, known as the Tolka¯ppiyam, composed perhaps in the first centuries of the common era. . The Cankam age, sometimes characterized as the “heroic” period of incipient state structures, gave way to a more established agrarian society of settled kingdoms, in which longer poems and didactic works were composed, between the third and sixth centuries A.D. The . most famous of these were Il.anko¯ At.ikal.’s “Tale of an Anklet,” or Cilappatika¯ram, a long narrative and lyrical poem telling the story of the widow Kan.n.aki, and the Tirukkural, a collection of gnomic verses on love, politics, and righteousness by Tiruval.l.uvar. Many works of this period were strongly influenced by the religions of Jainism and Buddhism. By the seventh century the Hindu cults of Shaivism and Vaishnavism gained widespread popularity through songs known as the a¯lva¯r and na¯yanma¯r, composed by wandering saint devotees. Though these poems sometimes built on earlier Can.kam poetic conventions, they tended for the most part to be composed in a simpler and more direct style, in keeping with the message of devotion to the Shiva or Vishnu. The hymns of the saints were collected and anthologized from the twelfth century, during the apogee of the famous Chola kingdom of Tanjavur (c. A.D. 950–1250). The Chola period saw numerous important literary innovations at court, which were heavily influenced by Sanskrit ka¯vya. The courts of the later Chola kings produced some of the most famous poems of the medieval period, like Kampan’s Ira¯mavata¯ram (a Tamil version of the Ra¯ma¯yan.a) . . and the courtly epic Kalinkattupparan.i, by Cayankon.t.ar. . The Kalinkattupparan.i formed one of a large number of ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

India

new genres, called as a class prapantam. The prapantam literature formed the staple of literary accomplishment until as late as the nineteenth century, and acted as the umbrella under which a number of folk and courtly genres met during later medieval times. From the late Chola period a rich commentarial and scholastic literature also emerged in a number of fields, including grammar, poetics, and theology. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, under the Na¯yaka kings of Madurai, Senji, and Tañjavur, northern languages, like Telugu, Marathi, Urdu, and Sanskrit, were often heavily patronized by the elites. The study of Tamil literature was confined almost entirely to Shaiva monasteries, or mat.has. European missionary activity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries led to important new developments, chief of which was the proliferation of indigenous printing presses from 1835. Modern genres like novels, autobiographies, and essays, and newspaper writing became widespread throughout the nineteenth century. By the first decades of the twentieth century, a number of important writers had sparked a new public interest in Tamil literature and history, which became caught up in the antiBrahman movement and organized Dravidian nationalism. Daud Ali See also Chola Dynasty; Languages and Scripts BIBLIOGRAPHY

Parthasarathy, R., trans. The Tale of an Anklet: An Epic of . South India, the Cilappatika¯ram of Il.a¯nko At.ikal.. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. Peterson, Indira Viswanathan, trans. Poems to Siva: The Hymns of the Tamil Saints. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1981. Ramanujan, A. K., trans. Poems of Love and War: From the Eight Anthologies and Ten Long Poems of Classical Tamil. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985. Ramaswamy, Sumathi. Passions of the Tongue: Language Devotion in Tamil India, 1891–1970. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. Zvelebil, Kamil. The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1973.

LODHI DYNASTY. See Islam’s Impact on India.

LOK SABHA. See Political System.

LOVE STORIES The composition of full-length love stories in Indian literature can be traced back to the epic Maha¯bha¯rata, long before the beginning of the common era. The Maha¯bha¯rata narrates the stories of King Nala and Damayanti, and of King Dushyanta and Shakuntala, 71

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including Tarangavai, Lilavai, Malayasundari Katha, and others, and in Apabhramsha, including Bhavisayatta and Nayakumara Chariyu. These were illustrated particularly in Rajasthan and western India, but since these Jain compositions have heavy religious overtones, they are not looked upon as secular love stories. The popularity of romantic literature in Avadhi can be attributed to the spread of Sufism after the fourteenth century, which uses the imagery of human l